Beyond the Borders
by wingedcatgirl
Summary: When your world is destroyed by Heartless and you're thrust into a multiverse filled with overcomplicated schemes that have mostly been going on since before you were born, how do you stay grounded? Rachel's answer: "With great difficulty." (Temporary pause while we rebuild our buffer.)
1. To End All Bad Days

ATUHOR'S NOSE: So this... is a more serious/realistic take on the self-insert genre than my other entry "A Decent Self-Insert, Probably" - actually it started as a rewrite of that fic, until it sorta evolved into its own thing. (DSI will still be continuing, but much slower.) With assistance from James CyberLink. Lots and lots of assistance. Co-writer credit isn't a thing on FFN, but I wish it was.

If you look at it really askew and squint, you could also interpret it as a lighter take on James's fic "Reality Just Is". (So if you're reading this and thinking something like "I like _most_ of this, but I really wish it was darker", there's your recommendation!) By the way, the character of Jules is originally from his fic, so if you like her, you can find more of her there.

In any case, all of these are still stand-alone fics, and you don't need any background info from one to understand the rest.

This fic takes place in October 2017 (same as DSI), but in a slightly altered timeline such that Rachel could reasonably played all the games she references and also all the cameos are roughly her age. Actually I guess that's more than just _slightly_ altered, but never mind.

A character in this chapter uses ey/em/eir pronouns. If that statement confuses you, you might want to check out **pronoun dot is/ey** and Learn™. ... And please don't start pronoun discourse in my reviews. I asked my online friends for cameos and ey was the second person to respond. (Out of two. You'd think a request like that would get more attention.)

The AO3 version has soundtrack links, if you're into that sorta thing, and will also have multimedia enhancements present throughout. There are several ways to get there from here, but I think the only one I can assist you with by typing words into this extremely limited space is to suggest that plugging "kingdom hearts beyond the borders wingedcatgirl archiveofourown" into your favorite search engine will _probably_ do the trick. Depending on how long it's been since it went up.

Meta gag about how saying "I don't own it" is not actually legally meaningful but everyone on FFN says it anyway, which will be changed on AO3 to a gag about how people over there don't say it, except not really because this is both gags. ...I'm only gonna do this once.

...I promise I'm only rambling this much in the opening note because this is the first chapter. Future chapter notes will be much more concise.

"True" wordcount (defined as "what Google Docs tells me when I'm selecting only the portion of the document that I personally consider to be "the actual fic"): 5180

* * *

— _**THIS JUST IN — **__**October 7, 2017 **__**—**_

_**The eagerly-awaited installment in the vastly popular Kingdom Hearts franchise, Kingdom Hearts III, has been cancelled by The Walt Disney Company and Square Enix.**_

_**It is unknown what happened behind closed doors at both companies, but the project, already having been delayed numerous times, was abruptly cancelled by both companies in a joint statement, and all official websites for the game have been taken down.**_

_**Devoted fans of the franchise are currently in an uproar, with numerous forums and online communities having been shut down either intentionally by moderators, or by being overloaded thanks to the chaos currently ensuing online.**_

_**Reasons for the cancellation itself are not clear, with many devoted fans having put forward numerous theories and suspicions of various potential causes, from possible financial problems at Square Enix, to a strike held by the writing staff.**_

_**Other devoted fans have suspected foul play of some description, such as money laundering, or a legal issue relating to some form of intellectual property. Rumors of a potential break-in at the head office of either Square Enix or Disney could not be confirmed at this time.**_

_**The creators of the franchise, including the director, have not been available for comment since the official statement was made, and have allegedly not been seen publicly since the cancellation. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.**_

* * *

When the announcement came down, many hearts were broken, and amongst the many broken hearts was a forlorn youth by the name of Rachel. A brown-haired and green-eyed young woman dressed in fairly ordinary blue jeans and purple T-shirt, she had decided that this event marked the single worst day of her life.

"I still can't believe they actually _cancelled_ it..." she muttered in dismay, as she gently rubbed the cloth over the lenses of her glasses. "I always said I wouldn't believe any release date until I had the disc in my hands, but I never thought they'd outright _cancel_ it."

The recently announced cancellation of the eagerly-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 had already been presumed to have led to a slight increase in the suicide rate of numerous countries. Many assumed the news to be some kind of internet prank until confirmation was received, which prompted the greatest internet argument the Kingdom Hearts online communities had ever seen since... anyone in said communities had first said anything, really.

The event had shaken Rachel to the point where her friends took her out to grab a bite to eat, and drink in the relaxing atmosphere of the coffee shop they had chosen. The place wasn't overly busy, with an average amount of patrons for that time of day.

"It really is weird," Kira said as she patted Rachel's brown-haired head like one would pat the head of a cat. "The internet can't figure out _why_. Some of them are saying Square Enix had financial problems, some of them are talking about half the writing staff just failing to show up one day... There's even that rumor you see everywhere that their corporate headquarters was broken into... I don't think that one's true, but people keep saying it, and it's weird."

"Why would anybody do that?" Rachel asked, fiddling with the trans pride pin on her backpack. (If one asked directly, there were myriad ways Rachel might describe her gender, from "I'm a girl and that's a weird question to ask" to "none gender with left catgirl", depending on her mood that day. But nobody ever actually asked that, except for that one time on Tumblr.) "Who or what could possibly _want_ to do that?"

"I dunno," Kira said, shrugging. "Maybe the darkness is somehow involved."

"...Really, Kira?" Sarah responded, with a worn-out expression that seemed to be the non-verbal equivalent of a painful groan. "Corporate espionage is way more likely."

"What kind of corporate espionage would video game companies do to each other, though?" Kira wondered.

"Consider this: Both. Corporate espionage by the legions of darkness."

Sarah blinked and shook eir head. "That... definitely makes _less_ sense, but sure, Rach. The darkness sent Neoshadows to break into Square Enix and steal the enemy designs for the next game so they can make an army of the bonus boss."

That got a chuckle out of Rachel, despite her foul mood.

"If they wanted to make an army of bonus bosses," Kira said, "they should go _backward_, not forward. No bonus boss will ever be as brutally unfair as Young Xehanort in _Birth by Sleep_."

"Oh, dear gods, _no_," Rachel cried in mock-terror. "I don't want to fight _one_ of him, much less an _army_. ... Oh, wait, he has that self-duplication attack. It's an army either way, isn't it?"

"Well," Sarah said, "considering Xehanort likes to put his essence in different people, make them into his 'other selves' as he puts it..."

"Oh dear, I guess we're doomed," Rachel said, breaking down in laughter. "... I suppose we should purchase _something_ at this cafe, rather than crying on their table all day."

"We've got you covered, Rach," Sarah said, as a harried-looking barista with the most remarkable timing set down three slices of pumpkin pie, a ham and cheese panini, and four cups of steaming hot tea. "See?"

Rachel stared at the offering, then frowned, noticing the panini among them. "...Is Jules lost again?"

"Seems so," Sarah said, glancing out the window. "I swear I told her it's across from the library...?"

The three friends started to eat their pumpkin pies, waiting for Jules to show up. She finally did, apologizing repeatedly for her lateness as she sat down to eat the less warm panini that she had been ordered. With her arrival, their foul mood over the cancellation of Kingdom Hearts 3 started to subside, and the day looked to be just a bit brighter, for just a while. Then the food was eaten, and reality came crashing back down once again.

At the end of this day, Rachel would look back on the thought that this was the worst day of her life, and wonder if maybe she somehow _caused_ what was to follow. It was the worst kind of magical thinking, and she knew it, but the rules against that had been made in a world where things work logically.

All that can be said for certain, was that her day was about to get a whole lot worse.

* * *

"I still can't believe they _really_ cancelled it!" Rachel exclaimed as the four of them headed home from the cafe.

"And that makes forty-seven," Jules said in a tired, worn-out voice, marking off another tally.

Rachel frowned. "Are you actually counting how many times I say that?"

"With the number of times you're saying it, I might as well. At least there's a silver lining, though: with the series cancelled, they can't do something _particularly_ stupid like... like abruptly kill off Aqua for cheap shock value."

"Would Nomura really do that?" Rachel mused, turning her head towards Jules with her eyebrows poised.

"He does seem to hate his female characters," Sarah replied. "Though I'd have pegged Naminé as the one at risk." Jules shrugged a shoulder in agreement.

"Ugh, he totally would do something like that..." Rachel sighed. "I know there's no way the ending would've lived up to my expectations, but I still wanted to see it, you know?" Rachel ran a hand through her hair as she walked along, with her three friends grouped around her.

Just then, unbeknownst to them and most of the people around them until now, the ground started to shake. It had been trembling gently for quite a while now, but at this point, the earth beneath their feet had really started to jolt and thrash like an entity chained up for a long time finally breaking loose.

"Did you feel that?" Kira asked.

"Feel what?"

"A rumbling," she said, "like —"

Rachel froze as she felt the next tremor. "I definitely felt it _that _time."

"I thought you didn't _get_ earthquakes around here," Jules said.

"We don't." Another rumble, stronger than the last. "Until today, apparently?!"

The quakes continued to build, getting more and more violent, seemingly coming in waves. As the tremors got rougher and rougher, the people around them started to panic more and more.

"I think we should -" Rachel was interrupted by another shake and a loud _crack_ in the distance. "- go in a shelter-ish sort of direction?" _I don't know what you do in an earthquake! We're not prepared for this around here! _Rachel thought to herself, as screams rang out from the crowd as one of the taller buildings took on a precarious tilt. "Not that direction," she added. "We should go in a direction that's _not that one_."

Jules finally spoke up, shaking herself back into focus. "We need to get out into the _open_, guys! We need to get the _hell_ away from anything that might fall on us!"

"Right!" Rachel said. _Where's an open, safe place around here...? Ah!_ "This way, y'all -" She almost pointed out a path to safety, when suddenly it wasn't safe anymore. The ground shook again, and this time it opened up entirely, breaking apart as if it had been wounded by a gigantic blade slicing a massive and gaping crack in the flesh of the Earth itself. Giant fissures, it turns out, are safety hazards by any standard. "Nope! Strike that!"

"If we don't go _somewhere_, quickly..." Kira trailed off, leaving the end of that sentence to the imagination.

And then the precariously tilted building slid past "precarious" into "actually collapsing".

"Run!" Sarah shouted. "Run, run, run, run, RUN, RUN!" Ey grabbed Kira's arm and ran, perpendicular to the building because ey's not a cartoon character, and Rachel and Jules followed closely behind.

_***CRASH!***_

The collapse knocked up a massive cloud of dust, obscuring everything for several seconds.

Jules was the first to stop coughing. "Is- *cough* — is everyone okay?" (Well, in actuality, the first to stop coughing _as much_.)

"Yeah, I'm fine, somehow," Rachel said. "Or, well, I'm covered in dust, and that's gross, but that's probably not new information and I'm fine _other_ than that." _It's a good thing I keep up with our self-defense classes... I don't have any other regular physical activity, and I don't think I could've covered that distance if I was completely out of shape like before we started those...!_

"Same here," Sarah said. "No injuries, just... completely shaken. Kira?"

"Mm-hmm," Kira replied, slumping to the ground. "This is exhausting... I think the tremors have stopped, though." She leaned back and looked up. "... Um, am I seeing things, or is that...?"

Rachel couldn't see through her dust-covered glasses, and wiping them on her dust-covered shirt wasn't exactly helpful, and neither was wiping them on her dust-covered jeans. But even at this distance, even with her eyesight, she could see something that big.

A silhouette of a recognizably humanoid figure, became vaguely visible through the grounded clouds, about the same size as the building that had just collapsed, and jet-black from top to bottom. And in its torso, a hole — Rachel couldn't quite make out the shape, but she could not help but suspect the empty space within the thing's torso to have the outline of…above all else…a heart symbol.

"...No," Rachel said. "No way. That's not possible. And also, it's ridiculous."

Jules stepped back, staring wide-eyed at the gigantic monster, shaking from the soles of her feet to the hairs on her head. "No… Sweet mercy, no… This is _not_ happening to us…" She whimpered, at a near-loss for words.

"It's a Darkside," Sarah said, breathing heavily as ey pointed a trembling finger from eir outstretched arm in the direction of the anomalous figure, eir head and focus turned back to eir friends.

"An _impossible and ridiculous_ Darkside."

"We're _all_ seeing it, though," Kira pointed out.

"Mass hysteria _is_ a thing!" Rachel exclaimed. "Or — or I could be dreaming!" She bit her arm, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to hurt. "Ow! Frick. Okay, not dreaming. Mass hysteria is still on the table, though."

"I don't think it works like this," Sarah said. Ey glanced at eir phone. "I'd look it up, but... no signal."

"No signal..." Rachel muttered. "No emergency services." She recalled a video game she had played a while back, in which emergency services had responded to a supernatural disaster by barricading everyone inside the area and covering up the true cause. "They _would_ actually help, right? And not... try to make it go away?"

"That building that collapsed..." Kira said. "It wasn't evacuated. They'd at least be able to do something about... that. That's a normal thing for emergency services to do."

Something in the back of Rachel's mind suggested that the four of them might want to help, but she shut it down. _We aren't trained. We'd be risking our lives for barely any chance at actually helping anyone._ "Maybe we could find a landline."

"Maybe they already know what's going on," Sarah said.

"If we found a landline we could at least check," Rachel said. "Our phones' clocks all still work, right?" Murmurs of affirmation all around. "Then, let's split up and look for a working landline, and meet back here in 15 minutes."

* * *

—**EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM—**

_**THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. THIS IS NOT A TEST.**_

_**A STATE OF EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED FOR THE NATION. A DISASTER OF UNKNOWN TYPE HAS OCCURRED, AND AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE FORCE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED AS PRESENT IN THE COUNTRY. AN IMMEDIATE EVACUATION ORDER HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR YOUR AREA.**_

_**FOR YOUR SAFETY, LEAVE BEHIND ALL PERSONAL BELONGINGS, AND TAKE A BATTERY-POWERED RADIO, AND ONLY ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES WITH YOU. DO NOT REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES DURING THIS TIME, PROCEED TO YOUR NEAREST EVACUATION ROUTE.**_

_**IF YOU HAVE NO TRANSPORTATION OR SHELTER, SEEK ASSISTANCE FROM LOCAL AUTHORITIES IMMEDIATELY. YOU MUST SEEK SHELTER AT AN EMERGENCY SERVICE SHELTER, OR YOUR NEAREST MILITARY ZONE. YOU ARE ADVISED TO REMAIN ALERT TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS.**_

_**IF YOU HAVE MILITARY TRAINING, FIREARMS TRAINING, OR ANY SIMILAR WEAPONS TRAINING, CONTACT YOUR NEAREST MILITARY OFFICER IMMEDIATELY. STAY TUNED TO LOCAL RADIO FOR FURTHER UPDATES ON THIS EMERGENCY.**_

* * *

Rachel was pretty sure there hadn't been any formal evacuation, but it did seem that most people had fled the area, and surprisingly fast, too. Abandoned cars could be seen dotted around, along with other clutter, showing clearly that whatever was going on, everyone had just upped and left. Rachel checked the businesses in the area, and all of them were empty. And, to her great annoyance, it took almost all her allotted time to find a landline that actually worked, in an abandoned bar with a notably rustic aesthetic.

(She very carefully did not think too much about the inky black substance covering the shelves, and the bars, and the tables and chairs and walls and floors and _everything_, choosing to gloss over it as probably a hallucination anyway.)

"_Finally_, a dial tone," she said, dialing 911. "Hello, emergency services, there's been a major disaster here..." She glanced out the window, still able to see the Darkside in the distance. "I'm... not sure I can tell what actually happened, because I seem to be hallucinating a little bit, but a building definitely collapsed."

Rachel belatedly realized that the person on the other end of the line hadn't been speaking. "Uh... Hi? Are you there?"

"This world has been connected..."

"No! _No!_ _**NO!**_ You have got to be _**KIDDING ME!**_"

"... tied to the darkness."

"What is this, a Kingdom Hearts themed creepypasta?!" She slammed down the phone and ran to the building's exit, only to stop as another tremor hit, knocking her to the ground.

"For... for crap's sake..." she said, breathing raggedly. "Can't we just be _done_?"

_Not unless a Keyblade wielder shows up and slays that Darkside._

"Sure, let me just hallucinate up a Kingdom Key and get right on that." She bit her arm again, just to be sure, but it didn't wake her up this time either. "Still not dreaming... just hallucinating. A lot." _No more pumpkin pies for me!_ She got to her feet and held her hand out experimentally. "All right, brain. If I'm gonna hallucinate, give me an imaginary weapon."

Rather than Rachel's mind allowing her to acquire something to defend herself with, she heard… _something_ emanating from a dark corner of the bar. As Rachel walked from the phone, slowly towards the corner, she noticed a pair of yellow eyes peering at her, glowing with a faint golden light that illuminated various particles of dust and other such things in the air around it.

_...Oh… Oh, no… _Rachel thought, gazing upon the shadowy corner, and saw more than just a shadow… as two more pairs of eyes appeared from the shadows present in the corner.

Three pure-blood Shadow Heartless emerged from the corner of the bar, staring Rachel down like she was nothing but meat, a tasty morsel to them. They appeared to be masses of solid shadow, black as pitch, the shadows cast by what light there was glimmering around them, as the light was seemingly absorbed into their shapes, giving them the very vague appearance of being an anomalous hole in reality itself.

"That is... almost _exactly_ the opposite of a weapon. Why. Why does my brain torment me this way." She shook her head, subconsciously refusing to believe what she was seeing. "Listen, hallucinations, I need to get back to my friends, so I'm gonna head out. Y'all okay with that?"

They were not okay with that, and showed their displeasure by lunging at her, claws outstretched. Despite not believing what was in front of her, Rachel jumped clear of the incoming attack and backed away a few paces.

Rachel sighed in annoyance upon touching down. "Um, about that, I don't actually _care_ about your opinion? Since you're imaginary? So." She turned around to face the exit when another fissure appeared, tearing through the floor and cutting off the exit. Not just the exit, but the entire front wall — and behind it, nothing but an endless void, a starry expanse of black, purple, and dark blue nebula that seemed beyond what Rachel could possibly hope to understand.

"This hallucination is getting really elaborate..." Rachel muttered, starting to worry that her mental state might be worse than she realized. Or that she might _not_ be hallucinating after all. She wasn't sure which outcome would be worse.

And while she was standing there wondering about that, one of the Shadows lunged close enough to hit her, leaving three bloody scratches on her shin (and corresponding gashes in her jeans).

Rachel recoiled in pain, uttering a heated string of nonsense syllables that _almost kinda_ sounded like profanity. "... Argh! Not a hallucination, then!" _Or maybe a hallucination concealing a wild animal, but I really hope not, because I'd rather die of Darkness™ than rabies!_

Now taking everything she saw at face value, Rachel reassessed the situation. "Okay. Let's get rid of those, real quick," she said, grabbing a random pool cue from the debris and swinging at the nearest Shadow to absolutely no effect, as the Shadow simply saw Rachel's attack coming, and disappeared into the ground, zipping behind her, prompting Rachel to side-step away.

Rachel could hardly believe what she saw. If she was just seeing an animal that she was perceiving as a Shadow, then that would be one thing, but the way her attack had absolutely no effect on the creature she was seeing...

"... I was really hoping that would at least knock it about. Maybe into the... void. That would have been conven- ow!"

_You just stood there rambling! Maybe don't do that?!_

"Shut up!" Rachel shouted, vaulting over the bar, completely ignoring the opening on one side. "Alcohol's flammable, right?" _Molotov = bottle + flammable + wick, I think? I'm an anarchist, kind of, I really should __**know**_ _things like this!_

Rachel started to scramble around for something flammable. _Okay, what did Jules say about this, again? _She tried her hardest to recall what Jules had said one day when she had been in a very, _very_ particular mood, one that was somewhat more extreme than either her own personal average or the national average.

Despite thinking as hard as she could, in the heat of the moment, Rachel couldn't remember much, except _You want the high-proof stuff for best results, and Jules said that's whiskey, scotch, vodka or rum, right?_

Rachel scrambled around the bar as the Shadows closed in, intent on ripping her heart from her body — the meaty, fleshy one, or some kind of metaphysical one, it didn't matter, Rachel was pretty sure she would need both of them to live.

Rachel managed to locate some vodka (labelled "Quintessentially Q" for whatever it was worth) and placed some dry fabric she found behind the bar in the top of the bottle, before looking around for something to set it alight. _Bars have matches, I know they do, it's a whole thing!_

This bar, at least, had a dusty-looking pile of matchbooks in a bottom drawer, which Rachel quickly seized and brushed off frantically as the Shadows gathered around her, two of them hopping up onto the counter to block her from vaulting back over it, and another one walking around behind the bar by the opening and slowly approaching.

Rachel's hands began to shake as she pulled the matchbox open, pulled a match out, and repeatedly swiped and scratched it against the rough edge, desperate to get it alight, kicking scraps of dust into the air in front of her in the process. After what seemed like an eternity to her, the match was lit, as Rachel was forced to retreat into the corner as the thirsty Shadows slowly closed in.

The fabric, the wick, caught fire and lit up in a spray of embers, the surprise heat catching Rachel right in the face, considering how close she was holding the bottle. She forced herself to her feet, bent her knees down, and vaulted backwards over the bar to avoid the Shadows closing in, with one of the Shadows on top of the bar lunging at her face and flying right past her shoulder, Rachel picking up an unusual sensation from it being so close to her face for a brief moment.

She quickly dashed diagonally from the bar across the room, coming closer to where the entryway had been eaten and digested by some form of void, and lifted the cocktail. She held out her arm to guide her shot, fingers flat and aimed at the jet black monsters, with gusto and fervor, only to stop in place, arms locked in the air, like a total doofus as a thought that only someone like Rachel could ever possibly have suddenly struck her.

"Wait. I have to call my attack, because apparently, I live in video games now... Uhh... _Garlean Firaga!_" she shouted and tossed the bottle at the shadows, now dashing towards her, with a level of accuracy that surprised even her. The mixture burst ferociously, dousing the Heartless in flaming fluids, which caused them to writhe and shake madly, spraying some burning droplets around the immediate area like a dog shaking itself dry.

This ended up igniting the surrounding area, because of course it did.

_I think you've made a mistake._

"Hey, you had several minutes to point out that lighting the bar on fire might result in the bar being on fire."

_No, I mean you blocked off your path to the back door._

She looked between the void and the fire and indeed, much to her horrified dismay, there seemed to be no exits. "_Crap!_ I should have trapped _them_, not me!" She coughed, doubling over. "Oh, and fire creates _smoke_, too! Maybe if I could _call the fire department!_" She glanced around, looking for a fire extinguisher.

"Is there someone in there?"

Rachel froze. "That..."

_Came from outside, yes._

"Yes! Yes, there is someone in here! Can you see a fire extinguisher back there?"

"... Yeah, here it is!" Extinguisher in hand, the stranger walked in — someone who Rachel recalled seeing on occasion, but had never actually spoken to, so she didn't know his name. He was clad in the attire of someone who seemed to like the great outdoors, wearing a beige shirt and khaki-green pants, and a similarly colored flat, broad-brimmed hat, with all the clothing on his body worn tightly, nothing hanging loose, boots zipped and tied, fitting exactly into place like a man of military-like discipline, or some other thing similar to that.

The stranger showed remarkable proficiency with the extinguisher, sweeping the blast around from the nozzle and clearing out as many flames as possible, before signalling to Rachel to head out the door that the stranger came through. Rachel quickly and carefully stepped through the flames, quickly passing through the way out of the building, and running away from the building in a justifiable moment of panic.

The stranger followed soon after, seemingly trying to flag Rachel down, presumably to get her attention to ask what the heck she was doing and what was going on. Rachel slowed to a stop in the middle of the street, abandoned vehicles all around, as the stranger stepped towards her, index finger pointing upwards, as the stranger tried to catch their breath, leaning against an abandoned car.

Before they could say anything, though, Rachel noticed something shifting around on the ground, behind the stranger...

"Hey, look out!"

The stranger turned just fast enough to catch a Shadow in the face rather than in the back and fell to the ground, screaming, trying to pull the creature off as it hugged his face, claws digging in and clinging on too tightly for the stranger to remove. Rachel leapt to his aid, swinging the pool cue around like a frenzied madwoman, but more Shadows piled on -

\- there was _so much blood_ -

\- a _heart_ floated up into the air -

\- more Heartless, person-sized, rose up from the ground -

\- the stranger's body wasn't there anymore, and the blood was slowly turning purple where the Heartless were touching it -

\- a strangled noise that vaguely resembled screaming, which Rachel belatedly realized was definitely coming from her -

_Rachel, don't lose yourself! You have to get back to your friends! ... Or at least away from here!_

Head pounding with adrenaline and terror, she scrambled away, moving at a dead run whilst fearing for her life, as the creatures from elsewhere quickly crawled towards her from a vast array of directions. Rachel saw a Neoshadow crawl out from under a car and had to quickly vault over its hood to evade the creature.

Rachel couldn't feel any breathing on the back of her neck or hear any loud cries of rage, hunger, or anything of the sort. What she could hear was the scrabbling and scrambling of the things chasing her as they crawled around the metal of the cars, and the concrete and tarmac of the abandoned street.

She briefly considered looking back to see just how close her pursuers were, before remembering how every movie character who had ever done that had died immediately, and deciding to just focus on running.

Rachel's feet hit the street one after the other, and her arms pumped back and forth as her body was pushed as far as was possible. She wasn't taking any chances, she wasn't going to be devoured by those things like the other person was if she had anything to say about it. She vaulted over another abandoned vehicle.

She skidded to a stop as she saw more yellow eyes appear in front of her. "What?!" She chanced a look behind her — yes, the Heartless were still there, too. She looked around frantically for a marginally safer-looking path and dashed off again.

It was only after having run a way down this path that she finally realized that she had been so focused on escaping that she hadn't paid any attention to where she was going.

_... You lost yourself._

"Ha. Ha. Funny play on words." Rachel leaned against another abandoned car for a moment, only to slump to the ground, completely exhausted both mentally and physically. "I would like this day to be over now, please and thank you."

Rachel found herself looking up at the sky in a melancholic manner, when she found that the heavens above looked rather different. They looked a lot darker than they should, considering the time of day. She checked the clock on her phone to be sure (which, luckily, seemed to still be running normally), and it was definitely too early to be this dark.

"Okay. I guess that _was_ what was gonna happen next, wasn't it."

She was fairly sure she should get up and see what was going on, rather than leaning against this car. With what probably didn't _look_ like a superhuman effort, she dragged herself to her feet.

... Not for long, though, as another tremor knocked her back to her knees. Longer and harsher than any so far, and _much_ more so than all of them combined. Rachel clutched her head, whining like the helpless critter she essentially was at this point, as the quake reverberated all around her, sounding more akin to an explosion, as a black wind blew all around her.

Eventually, the quake died down and she dared open her eyes. And she saw the road, because her face was still less than a foot off the ground. "... Right. I knew that." This time, it did look like she was exerting extraordinary effort to get to her feet.

"... I really do hate knowing how this goes."

The world, or what was left of it, was much smaller. Suspiciously boss-battle-arena sized, in fact. Beyond the borders of the tiny chunk of land, all she could see was the void. Out of curiosity, Rachel lifted a small piece of debris from within arms reach and hurled it into the all-encompassing abyss, where, to Rachel's shock, it floated around, before it touched the void, causing it to ripple, and then accelerate into the black unknown.

"... This is... _relentlessly_ unfair!" she cried out, fists clenched and breath ragged. "I can't even break down and cry... lousy goddamned worthless testosterone-poisoned flesh vessel... It never got this bad... when it happened... to SORA!" Only as the edges of Rachel's vision started to dim did it occur to her that her fatigue might not _just_ be stress.

"... What's..." was all the protest she could muster, as, one way or another, she slipped helplessly into darkness.

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "things that almost happened"...**_

Rachel took careful aim and pulled the trigger. "Garlean Blizzaga!" she shouted as she blasted the Heartless with the fire extinguisher.

_Why do you keep name-checking the fascists?!_

"I'm not name-checking the _fascists_, I'm name-checking the _magic-incapable race_!"

_Who are fascists!_

"Yeah, but it's not the _relevant_ detail!"


	2. Sic Transeunt Mundi

ATUHOR'S NOSE: If I recall correctly, Cid canonically has a bit of what the trope site calls (sigh) a "Funetik Aksent", but... I hate that trope. A lot. So I'm typing his dialogue normally, and you can just _imagine_ him pronouncing words like he normally does, which you probably were already doing anyway after seeing it in canon for a bunch of games.

...Or maybe I'm thinking of a different character? Well, if it's not Cid, it'll inevitably be _someone_, so the point stands.

* * *

Yuffie had grabbed the printouts she wanted to show everyone and was now storming into the Radiant Garden meeting room with a certain fervor. The meeting room, with its low hanging lights and large table, was fairly standard for all the Reconstruction Committee knew.

Yuffie dropped the stack of papers onto the meeting room table with a surprisingly firm and weighty _thud_. "We've got a situation." She said, with a serious tone of voice, her palms flat on the table, elbows bent, in a "hunched-over" posture.

Yuffie paused, in order to capture some form of dramatic effect. She turned to Leon, who was leaning against the back wall. Leon stared back. She turned towards Cid. Cid looked between Leon and Yuffie in confusion. Yuffie then turned towards Merlin, who looked rather bewildered. She turned again towards Aerith, who believed that she might be spared Yuffie's gaze, but alas, it was not to be. Aerith just gave a polite, sweet smile.

"Were you planning on elaborating?" Leon asked once the awkward atmosphere was simply too much for him to bear.

"Ugggh, at least _pretend_ to _consider_ looking at the printouts!" Yuffie huffed in annoyance. "Listen, you remember how stars were going out a while back, and then they stopped when Sora and Riku closed the door to Kingdom Hearts?"

"Strictly speaking no," Merlin said, "but -"

"Oh, don't nitpick, old man," Cid said. "Yes, Yuffie, we remember this."

"Well," Yuffie said, "these printouts are from the telescopes' logs of yesterday's night sky. Notice anything interesting about them?"

Leon flipped through dozens of pages of nearly identical starfields. (Oddly, nobody could remember seeing him step away from the back wall to pick up a printout.) _Did she have to include the __**entire**_ _night?_ "... Maybe you could just tell us."

"Oh, just look at page 49!" Yuffie exclaimed as everyone flipped through the pages, causing the sounds of rustling to fill the room.

"What the..." Cid muttered. "Yuffie, you sure that's not a bird nesting on the lens or something?"

Yuffie firmly slammed her hands on the table, arms straightened and tense, shooting a stare right at Cid. "It's a composite image from all nine telescopes, Cid. I checked _all_ the obvious stuff like that!"

Not just a single star, but an entire section of the sky had gone dark.

"Now, maybe it's something floating out in orbit," Yuffie continued, "so I want to send up a Gummi probe to check, and -"

"It's not." Merlin declared, with a grim look on his face. "Look closely. There are a few dim stars still visible in that region of the sky. It's not an obstruction, the vanished stars are _gone_."

"That's a lot of worlds, gone all at once," Cid muttered. "And just when we thought that particular problem was done with..."

"The quantity, while troublesome, is not the primary problem... This isn't just any group of worlds. This is the Prime Cluster." At this, everyone looked perplexed.

Cid was the first to make an inquiry. "The Prime Cluster? What's that, then?"

"It is a complicated matter, but something like this, happening there... This is bad, friends. Very bad. We need to contact Master Yen Sid immediately."

* * *

The Radiant Garden Radio Room was at least some distance away, but the urgency of the matter made the trip a lot shorter. When they got there, the machines were already making a substantial racket.

"Oh, how do I operate this infernal contraption?" Merlin muttered, fiddling with some buttons at random.

"Oh, for gods' sake," Cid interrupted, shoving Merlin aside, "just let me do it." Cid started to tinker with the device, pressing buttons and turning dials across the machine to get the signal they needed, to reach Yen Sid. From the speakers, a cacophony of noise from other transmissions could be heard.

"Is the radio room always this noisy?" Aerith mused.

"Maybe?" Yuffie said. "I mean, I don't come down here much, but I wouldn't be surprised if other worlds were freaking out about this too."

"Speaking of 'this'," Leon said, "what _is_ this 'Prime Cluster', anyway?"

"It's those worlds that just vanished!" Yuffie said. "Try to keep up, Leon!"

_... So you don't know,_ Leon thought to himself.

"More precisely," Merlin interrupted, glaring at Yuffie, "the Prime Cluster is, ah, a sort of keystone to all existence. Long-term, I must stress," he hastily added at the panicked looks on everyone's faces, "it'll be a few million years before problems actually start to crop up, but that's infinitely shorter than _infinity_, which is how long the multiverse _would_ last, were the Prime Cluster still in place."

"That's a pretty long time," Leon said. "Why the panic?"

"Well, I'm a bit sparse on the details, you must understand — it's Master Yen Sid who's the expert on this subject, not me — but I'm given to understand that the Prime Cluster, being rather a vital part of existence, is isolated, by a barrier of... oh, what was the technical term, negative quantum something..." Merlin paused for thought. "I don't recall. I hate to admit, but this is rather above my head. The point is, it'd take _quite_ a lot of technical know-how just to get an idea of how to begin considering a hypothesis for allowing Heartless into the Prime Cluster, and in that amount of time, one would surely learn its _function_ as well."

"Which means..." Aerith said. "... whoever did this, they knew exactly what it would mean."

"So they were..." Leon paused for thought. "Desperate, or reckless, or malicious. None of which are good signs."

"Also! Slightly more pressingly!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Something like two thousand worlds just fell to darkness! We need to set up a huge, massive, very large scale search-and-rescue team! Which is why I called this meeting in the first place! Cid, please say that contacting Yen Sid is going to involve that!"

"Course it is," Cid said, "don't get your hair in a knot." He jabbed at a few buttons and the cacophony gradually went quiet. "Good thing I got around to installing those mute buttons we would 'definitely never need'," he muttered. "Master Yen Sid, you're on speaker."

"...Friends," Yen Sid's artificially-tinny voice crackled from the speaker, "I believe you are aware of the... grave circumstances we have all found ourselves in."

Yuffie was the first to respond. "Yeah, I saw it all on the telescopes, sir! A whole bunch of worlds just went *poof*! Right out of the sky!"

Leon was torn between staring at Yuffie with his eyes widened, or rolling them around his skull. _Is she talking to him like that on purpose?!_

Merlin was next to speak. "I believe that this matter must be looked into with great urgency, Master!"

"Indeed it must," he responded. "The search for survivors alone will take far more hands than I have access to here."

"Speaking of things we have to do in addition to searching for survivors," Leon interjected with zero subtlety, "what is the deal with this Prime Cluster thing?"

"Dang, Leon, that was _almost_ a natural-sounding segue."

"Give me a break, Yuffie..."

"He has a point," Yen Sid said, acknowledging Leon's line of inquiry. "The Prime Cluster is a rather unknown subject, and while knowledge of it is usually kept to what you might call a 'need-to-know basis', it seems very likely that you, among others, will need to know what we know about the Prime Cluster in the forthcoming events."

"Merlin described it as a 'keystone to all existence'," Leon said, "but also that problems wouldn't crop up for _millions_ of years. What kind of function does it serve that it takes that long to be a problem?"

"A very good question. Tell me, Leon, have you ever wondered where worlds come from?"

Leon blinked. "...Not really," he admitted. _I __**had**_ _assumed they had just always existed, but now I'm guessing that's not true._

"Worlds, like people, are mortal - they are born, they live, and eventually, they die. The Prime Cluster, quite simply, is the birthplace of all worlds." At this, the entire room fell silent for a few moments while they tried to process this.

"Dang," Yuffie managed to just barely breathe out, "that definitely sounds like something you don't want to mess with. Unless maybe you're a megalomaniac who thinks you can mess with it to your benefit, somehow, but that would probably be super complicated."

"A problem which has come up on occasion," Yen Sid said. "The Prime Cluster is protected by a barrier, which serves to-"

"Skip ahead a bit, Master, Merlin already mentioned the barrier," Cid said.

"...Very well. In my time as a Master of magic, I have been monitoring the aetheric signature of this barrier, and just before the worlds fell to darkness, the readings had become erratic. Accordingly, I had sent Sora to watch over it while he attempts to recover the Power of Waking..."

* * *

**A few hours earlier...**

At this particular moment, Sora was not actually looking at the barrier. The ship was automatically seeking out the precise source of the anomalous reading, and there wasn't much Sora could've done to speed that up.

So while he waited for the computer to beep at him, he was working on his other task.

_Focus on your breathing... Breathing, Sora... Nothing else, just breathing... Oh, for crap's sake._

Sora's eyes snapped open. "Gahhhhh!" he groaned in frustration, standing up and chucking his Meow Wow plushie across the room. "This meditation thing isn't _working_!"

"It's been _three minutes_, Sora," Jiminy said, opening one eye.

"I know. I know... I said I'd give it five, but... I just can't do it. Every time I come close to clearing my mind of _thoughts_, it just gets filled up with..." Sora paused, desperately casting about for any kind of relevant vocabulary. "Ugh, I don't know what it is or how to describe it, just that it's gross and I hate it."

Jiminy frowned. "That's not a typical result of meditation..."

"Great! So I'm doing it wrong!" Sora threw his hands in the air. "Can't I... Can't we try...?" But try as he might, Sora couldn't think of any reasonable alternative plan with which to finish that sentence. He tried snapping his fingers in front of him to jog his mind along, but it was a futile attempt.

Conveniently, but also confusingly, the computer chose that moment to beep.

Sora blinked. "Uh... that was fast. Didn't we _just_ get here?"

"We did," Jiminy affirmed. "Saves us some time, though. Write down the coordinates so we can radio His Majesty."

"Which ones?"

"Oh, the ones that -" Jiminy froze mid-sentence as his mind caught up to his mouth. The slow turn of his head paused, and he jolted his gaze back to Sora. "... What do you mean _which ones_?"

"There's two sets of coordinates on the screen," Sora said.

Jiminy hopped over to the control console to look at it.

"Uh, make that five," Sora added, alarmed, as he grasped at the arms of the chair he was sitting in. "Twelve? Um. Why are they increasing?"

"I have no idea, but it can't be good."

Sora plugged the nearest-looking coordinates into the autopilot and grabbed the radio transceiver. Of course, nobody trusted him with technology, so they'd outlined what to do in order to perform certain tasks. He scrambled for an instruction leaflet that he'd been given that outlined what he'd need to do for certain tasks.

Sora scanned the leaflet to find the entry on contacting the King, and quickly followed the outlined steps, pushing buttons and turning dials across the machine until he had Mickey on the radio as he wanted. "Hey, Your Majesty!"

"Sora! Are you seeing these readings too?"

"I sure hope so, otherwise there are _two_ problems to freak out about! Why are there so many anomaly readings?" Sora glanced back at the scanning program, which had quietly crashed with an "out of memory" error.

"We're too late!"

"What?!"

"The barrier is about to fall!"

"_What?!_ Your Majesty, I don't even know what that means! Master Yen Sid didn't explain anything to me! This was supposed to be a routine investigation with almost no chance of anything distracting me from my meditation!"

There was a suspiciously long pause from Mickey's end of the line before he finally responded. "Sora, there's not a lot of time! That barrier was protecting something almost as important as Kingdom Hearts itself — gosh, maybe _even more_ important!"

That remark left Sora momentarily stunned. _How is that possible? What could be more important than Kingdom Hearts?! _He thought to himself.

"That means we need to get in there, find the one who's doing this, and stop them as quickly as possible! Now, do you remember the coordinates of the first anomaly reading?"

Sora blinked. Mickey seemed to have a rather precise model in mind of the threat, and it was already being derailed. "Um, there were _two_ readings that showed up first. About exactly the same time."

Mickey paused again, this time for a much longer duration. Sora could hear Mickey mutter to himself in a manner that seemed, curiously, not as composed as one would expect from him.

"Your Majesty? We're in a rush, aren't we? I already plugged one of them into the autopilot, so it's fine, right?"

"... Right. That'll work. Do you remember the other one?"

"Yeah, I wrote it down," Sora replied, as he gave Mickey the coordinates with great haste, knowing full well that there was no time to lose.

"Okay, I'll go after that one. Be careful, Sora. The plan was for us to face this together, but we're going to be split up. This could be very dangerous."

"Hey, I'll be fine, Your Majesty. You know me." Sora paused, remembering all the times he had walked recklessly into danger and lost years of his life for it. "... Dang it, you _do_ know me."

After a few tense minutes on autopilot, the ship computer beeped again, informing Sora that they had reached their destination. The target point looked fairly nondescript with the barrier gone.

Sora frowned loudly. "If nobody's here... where do we -"

Suddenly, without any warning in the slightest, a giant missile flew past, passing within paint-scraping distance of the ship before flying on. Sora's reflexes promptly launched him out of his chair, in total shock.

"_What in everything the Light touches was that?!_"

Sora's body twitching, he flipped onto his front, planted a hand down on the ship's floor to push himself up, and scrambled to get somewhere within the craft he inhabited to gaze upon the intruding cylindrical object hurtling towards its destination with determined fervor. He stared at the object in confusion.

"What is that?" Jiminy Cricket asked. "Some kind of rocket?"

One could almost see the rebus bubble above Sora's head going "anomaly reading + sudden missile launch = IMMINENT THREAT". "We gotta go after it!" he declared, taking the ship's control and blasting the throttle to maximum power.

"Be _careful_, Sora!" Jiminy admonished from a dazed heap in the back of the cockpit.

"The missile's in front of us," Sora said reassuringly, "it's fine -"

And that was, of course, the exact moment several panels opened in the side of the missile, revealing dangerous-looking devices that projected targeting lasers at Sora's ship.

Sora stared in shock for a moment before wrenching the ship into a roll, just dodging a trio of focused beams that looked like they would have knocked out something important if not vaporized the ship entirely. "What?! That's not fair, you can't have weapons _on your weapons_!"

Sora wrestled with the controls, to move the ship onto the other side of the thundering missile, and he sped up the ship in order to catch up to the rocket's other side.

Sora had just caught up with the missile when the targeting lasers started focusing again. "Oh, no you don't!" he said, rolling the ship out of the blast again. "Hm, we don't want to be doing that the whole way there," he said, pulling up the weapons controls. He flipped a few switches to disable the more overpowered guns, then took a few blasts at the lasers.

One more roll. "All right, shouldn't have to do that again, because," _pew pew pew_, "there! Lasers knocked right out."

The missile waggled the charred defensive weapons ineffectually a few times.

"Hey, Sora, how fast are we going?" Jiminy asked.

Sora glanced at the instrument panels. "Uh... Yes. Fast, is how fast we are going."

"Just saying, there's a planet coming up!"

Sora looked up at the main viewscreen, and there was indeed a planet coming up, alarmingly fast. "Oh, yikes," Sora exclaimed, smashing the brakes.

Naturally, this was the moment the missile revealed its last defensive weapon. A brief flash blinked near the missile's rear, and Sora's gummi ship went pitch-dark.

"Wh- _what_?!" Sora frantically pushed every button and flipped every switch. "What was _that_? Why is everything off?" In desperation, he started running through the startup sequence, which seemed to be working, but much slower than it should be.

"Sora, look! The missile!"

Outside the window, Sora could just see the missile careening toward the planet - and a few others coming in from different angles. "How many missiles _are_ there...?" he thought aloud. The missiles all detonated, and released their payloads a short distance from the surface of the planet, unleashing tendrils of darkness that descended to the planet below. "That's... definitely bad."

The clusters of darkness hurtled towards the surface of the planet, which had blue covering most of the surface, various green landmasses atop the vibrant blue oceans, wispy white clouds swirling around in the sky, and all kinds of lights glowing from the continents on its surface.

This was until the tightly packed clusters of darkness the missiles had released went from hurtling towards the planet at an alarming speed, to impacting the surface, each releasing a circular wave of looming shadows across the surface of the planet. The world Sora was gazing at in shock, with his jaw hanging open and his eyes wide, started to vibrate. Then, it started to shake, jolt, and convulse madly.

The world promptly released a vivid glimmer of black, which seemed to hold on the planet for a while, before being released, and dissipating into a various assortment of black gases and vapors. The planet itself, horrifyingly, seemed to have fractured entirely, as if rocked by a massive tectonic event, or explosion, with portions of the planet having been blasted clean off its surface, now floating a way away, and the planet itself didn't seem like it would hold together much longer. _Is that... what it always looks like from the outside?_ Sora wondered in horror.

* * *

It was several tense minutes before the ship's computer beeped, by which time nearly the entire planet's surface was covered in darkness. Unfortunately, the computer's report was that the main ship was still in the process of starting up, and all that was actually operational was one of the Teeny Ships.

"Not even the beaming-down gizmo is operational yet. But Teeny Ships can _technically_ fly on their own..." Right now, the Teeny Ship consisted entirely of a Wall-G and an Excalibur-G, but with a few modifications, it could get Sora to the planet without trouble.

Jiminy jumped up as close to Sora's face as he could manage on someone without a Pinocchio-shaped nose. "You had better not be thinking what I think you're thinking!"

"The survivors need help, and I'm the only one anywhere around here!"

"Getting yourself killed trying to cling to a Teeny Ship won't help anyone!"

"The computer says the main ship won't be ready for -" Sora leaned over to look, "- _three hours_! By that time there might not be any survivors left!" _And three hours is like a gajillion times longer than normal, what the heck kinda weapon __**was**_ _that?_ "And anyway, it'll be more survivable if I pry a few more structural gummies off the main ship to reinforce it..."

"And how are you planning to _breathe_, might I ask?"

Sora smirked. "I'll show you." _And also test it, in case it doesn't actually work._ He summoned his Keyblade and channeled magic. "_Water!_" A solid globe of pure water formed around him, like a makeshift space helmet. Sora gave it a brief pause before continuing, to make sure it worked the way he thought it did. "See, I can already breathe underwater," he burbled, "and this will hold together better than air!"

"Wait, what?! How can you breathe underwater?!"

Sora chuckled, which sounded rather unusual through the water. "Oh, I already had some deep lungs before all this, and I think some of Donald's magic rubbed off on me from Atlantica! Now, I might as well have gills!"

"Well, I'll be..." Jiminy muttered. He thought a few more moments, hoping to come up with more objections. But while he wasn't Sora's conscience, he was still _a_ conscience, and the desire to help those in need was definitely on the list of things he was meant to be in favor of. "Oh, all right! But you'd better turn around if anything, and I mean _anything_ goes wrong, you hear?"

Sora nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be careful. For real, I mean!" After checking to make sure everything was bolted down properly and Jiminy had his improvised oxygen mask on properly, Sora opened the hatch, launching himself outside the ship, _very quickly _recast his bubble, and closed the hatch. After checking once again to make sure he could breathe, the skin around his face and neck absorbing the dissolved oxygen present in the water that normal human lungs couldn't breathe, he promptly got to work jury-rigging some upgrades to the Teeny Ship he'd had his eye on.

_Pull off some of these_, he thought to himself, tapping his Keyblade to some nice big pieces of Dispel-G and willing them to pop off the ship. The magical material moved at Sora's thoughts and he carefully reassembled the blocks around the Teeny Ship into a shallow well he could comfortably stand in. _And now the finishing touch_. He carefully floated back to the ship and retrieved just one Thruster-G and carefully attached it to the Teeny Ship.

Carefully, Sora boarded the Teeny Ship and tapped it with his Keyblade to get it to unlink with the main ship, prompting it to slowly drift into space. It didn't manage to get very far before Sora channeled fire magic through his trusty weapon, and crouched down in the shallow well he'd made for himself, holding the Keyblade behind him like an oversized lit match, his face staring dead ahead at his intended destination with a daredevilish grin formed by his features. He, without even looking, moved the match towards the Thruster-G he'd attached to the ship.

The makeshift rocket promptly hurtled off like it had eaten something that disagreed with it.

Sora locked his feet into place and hurtled down to the planet's surface, trying his hardest to not scream as he hurtled down at a faster speed than he expected. However, he wasn't _entirely_ successful. He did find himself letting loose a few involuntary noises as he sped towards the darkened world, clouded in shadows.

After a minute or so, when he wasn't so rattled, he managed to consider how to control the thing. _If I can move the blocks around like this..._ He planted his Keyblade near the back of the ship like a rudder and lifted the handle slightly, visualizing the ship slowing down — and much to his delight, the flame coming out of the Thruster-G shrunk slightly. _Yes, this will do nicely_, he thought, bracing himself much more firmly and pushing the throttle down to max power.

Even at a max speed that seemed oddly high, it was several minutes, during which he reflected on how much he already missed the beaming-down gizmo before he got close enough to see anything distinct on the planet's surface. Not far away, he could just make out what looked like a city, with the unmistakable (if still indistinct) dark blue-black of Heartless moving within it.

Sora's thoughts ran wild. _If I can see all that from up here, then it really must be bad... Why was the King so worried about all this, anyway? Is this world just particularly vulnerable to the darkness, or is there something else going on...?_

As he got closer to the scarred and barren city, he could start to see the larger Heartless more distinctly. Or more precisely, larg_est_, as in Darksides. And they could see him, too, their eyes locked and fixed on his airborne position like searchlights illuminating an enemy aircraft of one of the many battles in the history of this strange world. All at once, they started charging their dark-orb-chest-blast attacks. "... That's probably bad," Sora burbled.

He quickly took evasive action, dodging between bolts of energy from every direction. A surprisingly large number of them were going over his head, and he wondered how their aim was _consistently_ too high right up until he heard scraping from the bottom of the ship. Somehow, without realizing it, he had been losing altitude. He stumbled as he lost control of the ship, and then it got worse — it tumbled end-over-end, flinging him to the city's debris-filled streets, and the Gummi pieces lost their connective magic and scattered.

"Ow..." The impact of the landing had scattered Sora's water shield as much as the ship, droplets cascading across the uneven terrain, but it had saved Sora from the brunt of the damage. He called his Keyblade back to his hand and cast a quick Cure. "Okay. I'll fight them on foot!"

These Darksides were larger than any Sora had seen before, but luckily, he had recently learned a technique that would be extremely helpful in a fight like this. Focusing his will on the Darkside nearest him, he channeled magical energy into his legs and leapt at its face — only to realize mid-jump that he was _again_ losing altitude unexpectedly.

Sora quickly recalculated his trajectory and realized that he was most likely going to land in or near the giant heart-shaped hole in the Darkside's chest. _That works too_, he thought, gathering more magic into his hands in preparation to strike.

Sora slammed his Keyblade into the Darkside's chest and unleashed the charged magic into his landing point just below the anti-heart. He saw the Darkside preparing to swing at him while he was dangling from his Keyblade, and pulled himself up just in time to avoid it. "Nope!" he taunted, landing inside the Darkside's chest cavity.

He took a few cheap shots at the inside of the giant Heartless while it recovered from accidentally punching itself, keeping an eye out for attacks from the other Darksides. He didn't realize what he _really_ needed to worry about until the thing started leaning back.

Sora yelped and stabbed his Keyblade into the Darkside, clinging to it as he lost his footing. _It leans back to cast..._ An orb of darkness started gathering in the space Sora had just vacated. _Oh, I can't stay here!_ He looked to the ground and dismissed his Keyblade.

As he fell, he knew that he had fallen longer distances without injury, but something about this place, the way he had lost altitude on the Teeny Ship so fast, and how the same thing had happened when he tried to jump made him wary, and he resummoned his Keyblade to slow his fall with Aero.

As he touched down, he felt his knees bend involuntarily, forcing his posture into a squat, seemingly to compensate for some kind of impact. This lasted only an instant, though, and he could stand back up in no time. He almost spent a whole brain cycle wondering what the heck that was about, before being distracted by something shiny — specifically, the scattered Excalibur-G. The manic gleam that appeared in his eyes might have given the Heartless cause for concern, if they could actually see it from so high up.

Sora dashed over to the oversized blade weapon and affixed it to the end of his Keyblade. With a wicked smile, he grabbed the midsection of the Keyblade and primed it like one would a javelin, and pulled his right arm back, holding his left arm out to guide his aim. With this, he thrust his right arm forwards, and launched the makeshift javelin with his trademark gusto. It sailed towards the hulking behemoth of the shadows, sailing along its trajectory majestically, as it slipped harmlessly through the massive, heart-shaped gap in the Darkside's midsection.

Sora frowned. "Right. Weird gravity. I totally didn't forget that." He called his Keyblade back to his hand, and decided to take a more direct approach, as he sauntered towards the gigantic Heartless, the gears and cogs of his mind turning as he pondered what the best approach was. He looked down at the makeshift spear he had constructed, and mused to himself, trying to figure out the best course of action.

Sora then shrugged, walked directly under the Darkside, and stabbed it between the legs, jumping up and thrusting the makeshift spear upwards as hard and as far up as he possibly could. One could almost see the tip of the Excalibur-G poking through the bottom of the heart-shaped hole.

The monster of the shadows knelt down, keeling over. Sora promptly dashed towards it's head, now lowered to the ground, and performed a perfect thrust directly into the beast's face, skewering it between the eyes. The Darkside promptly collapsed.

Sora withdrew his weapon, and stepped backwards, breathing heavily. He stared at the fallen creature, before a strange sound pricked his ears...

_"... elentlessly unfair..."_

"Wh...?" Sora looked around in confusion. "Did _you_ hear that, Jiminy?"

"I don't think I heard anything," Jiminy said, listening carefully.

"I think it came from this way," Sora said, running off at full speed. "A girl's voice, I'm pretty sure — she might be a survivor!" _This place is clearly supposed to be a big city, but I haven't yet seen a single person still alive in it... if only I'd arrived faster!_

"Sora, slow down, will ya!" Jiminy protested, desperately clinging to Sora's collar. "You don't know anything about this place, you don't know -"

"I know there's someone who needs help!" Sora proclaimed. _But where...?_ He stopped running and focused on listening for the voice again.

_"... poisoned flesh vessel..."_

"I might have heard something that time, but — _aah! Sora! Stop that!_" Jiminy cried as Sora took off sprinting again.

He hadn't gone long before he encountered an obstacle. The sundered world just... stopped in front of him. There was nothing more, just the endless sky.

"Th... this _was_ the right direction, wasn't it?" he said, taken completely aback. "But there isn't anything..."

_"— SORA!"_

Sora froze in shock. _What in... __**what**__?_

"I heard it too, Sora," Jiminy said. "How does someone from this world know about you...?"

"It's... she's calling for some _other_ Sora, obviously! It's not _that_ rare a name!" He briefly recalled befriending another Sora in grade school, before she moved away at the end of the year. _Probably not that Sora either, but the point is that there's definitely other Soras._ "The part I don't get is — she's that way," he gestured toward the void, "but there's nothing _there_! There's..."

Something finally clicked in the back of Sora's mind and he summoned his Keyblade again, Excalibur-G still attached to the end. With a mighty swing, the Gummi sword rent a tear in... something... revealing more scarred streets beyond.

Sora jumped through the tear, idly noticing that it sealed up again behind him, and looked for the source of the voice once more. Keeping his guard up, Sora noticed that the area gave off a very blatant "abandoned" feel, thanks to the abandoned vehicles that Sora didn't recall having much familiarity with, and with the buildings around the area seemingly empty, except for one rustic-looking building that was, for whatever reason, on fire. He looked inside, hoping to figure out how that happened, but he couldn't see anything in there that seemed an obvious source.

In addition to the structure engulfed in flames, Sora noticed a whole lot of dark purple-black goop around the place, mostly in puddles on the ground. Concerningly person-sized puddles. _Whoever launched those missiles has a __**lot**_ _to answer for. _Sora's hands unconsciously tightened, and his teeth started to grit.

Sora walked past the burning building and continued on, weaving through the vehicles, moving swiftly, keeping his head on a swivel, as he looked for survivors. After moving around numerous vehicles — _Why are there so many of these things? How did people ever get around on foot?_ — he heard some commotion coming from a path off to the side...

"Hello? Anyone there?" He called out, as he walked down the alley to see what was happening, and who was staggering around in a strange, somewhat stiff manner. Sora, taking note of the figure, approached at a brisk pace, which quickly turned into a dead halt.

_What the heck is THAT?! _Sora silently remarked to himself, frozen in out-and-out shock.

In front of him shambled a figure that Sora did not truly know what to make of at first. A flat, broad-brimmed hat was tilted to the side as if it had gone limp, the boots on his feet being disheveled and loose, the leather having lost strength, and his khaki-green pants and beige shirt being ripped, torn, and flayed, the fabric hanging limply off his form.

The only thing still clinging to the shambling man were drops of dark, purple-black goop. And even that was dripping off as he moved. _Everything is wrong with that._

"Sora," Jiminy said with a quivering voice, "That's... not normal."

"You could say that again." Sora held out his Keyblade. "Hey! Are you... alive?" _I'm not gonna be that guy in the zombie movie who doesn't know what zombies are! ... Still, I want to check._

The shambling man only groaned. His eyes opened wide, revealing a sickly yellow glow that reminded Sora way too much of the Heartless he'd spent so much time fighting against. Taking in all the noticeable details of the man, Sora could only reach one, single conclusion.

"Zombie! That's a zombie!" Sora screamed, rushing forward and swiping at the undead creature, sending it tumbling. "... A low-level zombie, I guess. The shambling kind, not the running kind." _...Oh, I should not have said that, saying stuff like that out loud never ends well..._

Sora raised his Keyblade again to launch a fire spell at it for good measure when he spotted the Heartless in the area. Lots of them.

"Okay," Sora said, grinning, "I can take you on! _Magnet!_" His spell pulled the myriad Heartless out of their hiding places and dragged them into the air, floating above the zombie. However, the zombie, as strange as it was, seemed to be immune to the magical magnetism, as it slowly picked itself back up, seemingly unaffected by the spell.

Sora jolted his head between the zombie and the magnet spell in total confusion. His attention switched rapidly from one to another, disbelief evident on his face. "That's... unfortunate." _But I've fought magnet-immune enemies before_, he thought, charging forward and swiping at the still-spinning mass of Heartless. As they scattered about like leaves, Sora gathered energy for a magic follow-up. (And something about that felt just _off_ enough for him to note it briefly, but he dismissed the thought quickly.)

The still-active magnet spell pulled the scattered Heartless back into one convenient blob, and Sora unleashed his spell — "_Thunder!_" he cried, as a burst of lightning tore the Heartless apart like they were made of paper, with the fury of a rabid dog, and the efficiency of someone who had done this exact thing many times before. Sora was himself mildly surprised at how effective this was, expecting to have to do more to finish them off, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The zombie finished standing up, seemingly ignoring the crackling electricity still coursing through its body. On a sudden flash of insight, Sora swiftly brought up his Keyblade into a blocking position, just barely deflecting the zombie's claws as it moved faster than he could see. _Holy crap — _and before Sora could even finish the thought, the zombie swiped again, knocking his Keyblade aside and leaving three deep gashes in his arm.

Sora winced in shock at the pain, well above the level he was conditioned to expect in battle, and something in the back of his mind noted with quiet concern that droplets of his blood were flying through the air. With a thought, he detached the Excalibur-G from the end of his Keyblade, which he thrust at the zombie as he grabbed the Gummi sword with his other hand.

Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl as the zombie staggered and Sora analyzed the situation. _That hurt way more than it should have, and I do __**not**_ _want to take another hit like that somewhere more vital. So I need to make sure it doesn't hit me. Keep it staggered with constant strikes._

_... Should probably start on that now, before it recovers._

Sora kept jabbing the Keyblade into the zombie, pushing it back further and further with each forward thrust, treating the scenario he was currently in with much more caution than he usually would. He kept the Gummi sword at his side, waiting for the perfect moment to strike with it, maybe to finish the creature off without risking much harm to himself. He studied what was before him with caution, his attention focused solely on the threat in front of him.

This was, of course, a mistake.

"_Sora, behind you!_" Jiminy shouted.

In a state of absolute panic, Sora turned to face the new threat, but he had barely started moving before he felt the razor-sharp talons rending his unprotected side, digging into his lower torso. With a shout of pain, he jumped back, out of both zombies' range. Sora found himself clutching the wound reflexively, staring wide-eyed at both of the zombies, his entire body quivering, rivulets of blood falling from his shaking form onto the ground he was standing on, pooling around his foot.

Sora's mind froze up, his hands shaking along with his mind, as he backed away from the zombies, eventually hitting a wall, prompting him to let out a nervous squeak, as the zombies closed in on his left side, and in front of him. Noticing a clear opening to the right, he dropped his Keyblade, letting it disappear, grabbed a firm hold of the Excalibur-G, his other hand clutching the wound in his side, and quickly took off running down the path in the direction he was going originally before coming across the first seemingly undead figure.

Sora's feet hit the ground hard as he desperately tried to escape what was surely a terrible fate. _No, no no no no... This was a bad idea, I should NEVER have come down here...! _He thought, regretting his rash judgement when he saw the missiles attacking the world. _There's no way I can stand up to those things! I've gotta get out of here, right now! _He added to himself, his hand still clutching his bleeding wound.

Suddenly, Sora realised there were noises behind him. He looked over his shoulder, and saw that there were some zombies behind him. Sora didn't register if they were the same ones, though. He was more focused on the fact that they were _sprinting_, seemingly following the trail of blood that Sora was leaving behind him.

"Run, Sora! RUN!"

Jiminy didn't need to tell Sora twice. The boy dipped his head down and charged forward as fast as he could, zipping quickly down the path, before in a stroke of unfortunate luck, the path sloped downwards, and Sora, head tilted downwards as he charged forward, couldn't see it in time, and ended up tripping, falling head-over heels, rolling down the path like he was dodge-rolling, albeit unintentionally. He came to a stop at the bottom of the ramp, in a mild daze, which Sora shook off as he looked up the ramp he just accidentally rolled down, and saw the zombies eagerly moving towards him with ill intent.

_Oh, I'm done for..._

"Sora! Get the Keyblade out, already!"

Sora, not having many other ideas, pushed himself up slightly, his body still diagonally-oriented thanks to the ramp, and summoned his typical weapon, charging it with some magic, and shooting a sharp shard of ice at one of the zombies. It hit home, but Sora didn't get to see much of what resulted before the other one charged him.

Sora panicked, and in a snap decision, swung his entire body around, and thus, his arm, in order to swing the Gummi sword through the rapidly approaching zombie. Remarkably, the impromptu attack hit home, and cut right through the humanoid figure, which had the unfortunate side effect of spraying a surprisingly large amount of blood directly onto Sora, which was something he wasn't in any way ready for.

Sora froze in shock, whining quietly. It wasn't like he had never seen blood before. Even just sparring with Riku when they were kids with wooden toy swords had occasionally drawn blood, when one of them was careless. But now there was _so much_ of it, and it was _on him_, and this was _not okay_. He instinctively recoiled from the blood, which didn't help because it was _**on him**_.

"Sora! Pull yourself together! We've gotta get out of here, we're not safe!"

Sora pulled himself up, deciding that Jiminy had delivered the most excellent advice, looked around for a good way out of this hell-hole. "Well, the Gummi Ship is still in orbit, the beaming-up gizmo isn't back up yet, our ride in is smashed to bits, the gravity here is really strong..." Sora sheepishly said, before his hand went to his wound again." Argh, and this here, it really hurts..."

"Can't you just cast a healing spell?"

Sora decided that this was probably a good idea, and summoned his Keyblade, attempting to channel magic through it to heal himself, but found that nothing happened. "I... I don't have enough in me to heal myself!"

"What? All you did was cast Blizzard!"

"And Magnet, and Thunder, and I know that doesn't add up to 110 thaums, but this place is messing with everything else I do, so why not this too?!" Sora exclaimed out of stress as he reached for a potion, chugging it down with great haste. He winced as his wounds took several seconds to close, wondering whether that was because he'd never needed to heal a wound this deep or the Prime Cluster was messing with him here as well.

Once that was over and done with, Sora looked around, noticing that he could see what seemed to be the edge of the world he was on, which reminded him of when he used the Excalibur-G to cut his way through what seemed to be an endless void, revealing the area he was still currently in.

Sora thought to himself, lifting the Gummi sword, trying to ignore the bloodstains still on the blade. "I wonder..."

"Sora, we don't know what could be over there! It could be something even worse than what we found here!"

Sora paused, and took what Jiminy said on board. After a bit of thinking, he stepped up to the edge, bordering the void, and just stood before it.

"...I've got an idea!" Sora said, prompting Jiminy to suddenly get rather nervous. "You hop onto my shoulder, and I'll make a real small cut, so you can peek in and see what's what in there!"

"...Yeah... Okay, yeah!" Jiminy hopped onto Sora's shoulder, and Sora made a small incision into the void, allowing Jiminy to see what was beyond the border. Suddenly, Jiminy gasped in shock, and hopped up onto Sora's shoulder. "There's someone in there! A survivor, I think!"

Sora wasted no time. _If there's someone who needs rescuing in there, this whole thing won't have been for nothing! _Sora quickly hopped backwards, and charged at the void, slashing a large gap wide enough for him to pass through. Landing on his feet and skidding a bit, he saw what Jiminy had seen, a brown-haired person wearing a purple t-shirt, and blue jeans.

He rushed over to the fallen person and checked — her, one of the many pins on her bag said "she/her", so she was definitely a her, and _there_ was a custom that could stand to be more universally applied — checked her over for injuries.

As Sora checked her over, something in the back of his mind noted all her _other_ pins and doodads. One that said "I just want to take naps and pet cats", one that said "Be nice or leave", one with a pattern of pink, blue, and white stripes (_What's up with that? _Sora pondered. _It looks kinda like toothpaste... does she want to be a dentist in future?_), one that said "Share if you don't think", and... was that really a tiny Kingdom Key? That raised a lot of questions.

"Hey, Jiminy, look at this," Sora said, taking the tiny Keyblade and handing it to the cricket.

"What in the world..." Jiminy marveled. He waved it around experimentally. "It's a replica, obviously. Aside from being tiny and non-magical, it doesn't have the perfect balance a real Keyblade would." (Jiminy had never held a real Keyblade himself, but he'd been around people wielding them long enough to know some things.) "But how could she possibly have gotten it...?"

Meanwhile, Sora had finished looking the girl over. "She's out cold... I don't see anything wrong with her aside from the scratches on her shin, though." He frowned in confusion, and decided a case like this was probably worth using one of his few ethers.

Slowly, paying close attention to the flow of magic in his body, he carefully channeled precisely enough energy for this next spell — "_Libra._" And two things immediately became clear.

The first was how he had run out of magic so quickly. This world apparently lacked an ambient magic field, so he had been drawing on nothing but his own reserves the entire time. _I should've recognized that, I've dealt with it before, when Hades's curse cut off the magic field in the Underworld._

The second was much more concerning. While he still wasn't fully fluent in the shapes and colors that Libra flooded his mind with, he had tested the spell on all his friends the moment he had first learned it, and he could see one _big_ difference.

"Jiminy, her body barely has any aether in it. Like, _maybe_ a kilothaum. That shouldn't be physically possible, right?"

"What?!" Jiminy exclaimed. "That would barely keep _me_ alive! Maybe people in this world are built differently, but... I think she might be dying."

"Dying?!" _After all this, she's just gonna die anyway!?_ "No, there's gotta be _something_ I can do — _Cure!_" The healing magic depleted the remainder of his magical reserves, but looking her over under the last lingering effects of the scanning spell showed barely a flicker of change. "She's barely injured, it must be the lack of aether _itself_ that's the problem..."

He suddenly remembered one scan he'd tried out of sheer curiosity, only to have been blinded by the glow of what had seemed an infinite amount of aether packed into a single point. _If the Keyblade is a source of aether... _Sora summoned his Keyblade once more and picked up the unconscious girl's hand. "... Jiminy, what's the worst that could happen if I try this?"

"Uhh..." Jiminy paused for a moment to seriously consider the answer to that question. "It doesn't work and she dies anyway? It works but doesn't solve the problem and she dies anyway? It works and saves her life, but she turns evil and kills you and all your friends? It works and saves her life and she doesn't turn evil, but passes it on to some third person and _they_ turn evil and kill you and all your friends? ... I don't think it could get much worse than _that_, though."

Sora considered this for a moment. "Well. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do that." He placed her hand on the Keyblade's hilt. _And through this simple act of taking..._

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of... um... "things that go at the bottom of the page"?**_

We didn't think of a gag or deleted scene to put here, so instead here's a fic recommendation or several.

If you're into queer and/or plural stuff (and I'm sure _some_ of you must have come here specifically for that) you might like "Ranma 2 in 1" by Taxouck, which is described as "(yet another) queer re-imagining of the original series". Don't worry too much if you're not familiar with that canon; I don't know a darn thing about it myself and I still enjoy the fic. It's s/13489102 if you know what to do with that information, or you can find it in my favorites... or, like, use a search engine. It's also on AO3, if that helps, though I imagine that if you preferred reading your fic on AO3 you'd be reading _this_ fic on AO3...

Alternately, if you'd prefer to stay in the KH fandom, there's "I Think I Understand" by melodysrefrain, in which "Roxas is an enby who works in a coffeeshop. They also happen to have 4 other headmates." I betaread the first chapter, actually, so like, consider this a... double endorsement or something. That's a thing that's real. That one's only on AO3, so uhhh... search engine.

(hey James you can put a fic rec or two here also if you want)

James here, co-writer for Beyond the Borders. If I'm going to recommend a fic, I guess I'll keep it on topic to Kingdom Hearts and submit "_A Rush of Blood to the Head_" by mimiplaysgames. Named after a Coldplay song, the story is an alternate retelling of the whole "Aquanort" dilemma, with a different take on the whole scenario.

AO3:  /chapters/34599269

FFN:  s/12969496/1/A-Rush-of-Blood-to-the-Head


	3. In Her Heart of Hearts

ATUHOR'S NOSE: "Hey group chat who wants to make a tiny cameo in my fic?" _You have 32987429 new messages._ That bit probably goes on at least twice as long as it really should, and I regret nothing.

* * *

The first thing Rachel noticed was how _quiet_ her mind was. No background chatter running a mile a minute, which she hadn't even realized had been a constant in her life until it was gone.

The second thing she noticed was that she seemed to be underwater. Given her state of exhaustion, she was content to just float there and relax.

Everything was aching, and she didn't want to go anywhere anyway. She couldn't quite recall the details, but she knew that once she got out of the water, she'd have to face things she wasn't looking forward to.

"... but I guess I have to _breathe_ eventually," she burbled, failing to notice that this was clearly a non-issue. There was a light, not too distant, and she slowly swam toward it. Rachel could see shafts of light shimmering through the water, bending, weaving, and dancing as they shone through the gentle ripples.

Eventually, she reached the surface, where she laid back and floated some more. _That was the weirdest dream... there was a huge earthquake, and there were Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, and the world broke into tiny pieces..._ She blinked. _Wait. I sleep in a bed, not a pool. Is this another dream? But..._ She pushed her finger into the palm of her other hand, noting that it met a normal amount of resistance and didn't pass through. _It's not a dream, but I don't know how I got here, and that's something that only happens to me in dreams._

She leaned forward to float upright again. _Actually, I don't even know where here is. That's something that only happens to me in dreams too._ But despite the unmistakable dreamlike quality to the place, every reality check she could think of suggested she was awake (including, she belatedly realized, the fact that she could so easily recall all these reality checks in the first place) — even reading the numbers on the d20 ring she wore to fidget with wasn't any more difficult than it ought to have been.

_So... __**I'm**_ _awake... but I'm __**in**_ _a dream?_ She thought about that for a moment. _Sure, whatever, that makes as much sense as any other hypothesis._ Contentment now replaced by vexation, she swam to the edge of the circular pool and climbed out onto the edge of the pool, seated inside this cylindrical room, with a dome-shaped roof, and water trickling down wide indentations along the walls, like micro-sized waterfalls.

The pool was perfectly round, and deeper than she could see. The room's floor was only a few feet larger, but the walls seemed to go up forever too. _Oh, there is __**something**_ _unreal about this place._

There was a short stairway up to a single door, in the direction Rachel arbitrarily decided was north now. _I might as well see what's behind that door. Not like I have any reason to stay here._ Shaking, she slowly pushed herself to her feet and opened the door.

On the other side, Rachel saw nothing but a long corridor, with water dimly shimmering down the walls, a walkway suspended a short distance above a river, illuminated with small lights along the sides, casting a glow across the walkway, with a more distant glow at the other end, and a third glow coming from below the walkway, giving off the impression that the water had an ethereal kind of luminescent quality to it.

Rachel sighed, leaning against the door frame. "I am... so damn exhausted. Who designed this place?"

It was at this moment that Rachel heard a dulled, muffled sound coming from somewhere. The unintelligible noise echoed and warped in such a way that Rachel found herself unable to discern the distance nor the direction of the sound, or its source. All that was even remotely clear is that it sounded like somebody trying to make themselves heard.

Rachel ran her hands through her hair in utter frustration. "I can't hear you!" she shouted. After a moment, she shook her head. _Ugh, what am I doing? They definitely can't hear me, I'm in a dream or whatever and they're the person... begging me to wake up or something. I don't know. I hate this. I want to... be anywhere but here._ She looked towards the other end of the hallway. _Well. That does qualify._

Slowly, shakingly, she stepped forward. It took all her strength and then some, but she moved forward. _Couldn't have put the walls closer together. Or not run a river through them. Nope, no leaning on the walls allowed when you walk down this hallway that exists just to be annoyingly long and generally a GIANT PAIN!_

Somehow, in her irritation, she managed to misstep in a featureless hallway and stumbled to the ground. The anguished shriek that escaped her mouth was worthy of an anime character who had been powering up for three and a half episodes.

Rachel's body broke out in hot shivers and cold shudders. Her vision started to blur, and the glowing lights in the long hall seemed to be more unbearable than they were a moment ago. _Why... why do I feel like this? What's going on with my body...? _

The mysterious voice, as Rachel was sprawled out on the walkway, exclaimed something that was just as unintelligible as the previous statement the voice had made.

"Still can't hear you," she said, quieter this time. _Breathe, Rachel._ She took a few breaths and, still struggling, pushed herself to a vaguely seated position. _Ow. I don't think I can walk like this._

She looked toward the light at the end of the corridor again. It seemed like she was close enough that she should be able to see any level of detail, but it still looked like a nondescript glowing orb. And yet... she had an unaccountable intuition that it would also be her salvation.

She struggled back to her feet and took a moment to steady herself. _You can do this, Rachel..._ But she managed only a few more steps before her legs gave out again, sending her tumbling to the floor.

_For gods' sake... I am __**not**_ _going to lay down and die in this ridiculously-designed corridor that might not even be real!_ But despite her best efforts, Rachel couldn't push herself back to her feet. _Damn it... it's __**right there**__!_

Rachel laid her hands on the cold walkway and started to grab at the slightly raised sides of the long platform, in order to pull herself along. Her body felt drained of vitality, but Rachel absolutely refused to simply keel over and perish. She used her knees, feet, hands, elbows, and every single part of her body to keep going. Every muscle, every nerve, every little bit of energy she still had left, in a bid to reach whatever was at the end of the hall.

Rachel wasn't even entirely sure if the feeling she got from the glowing orb was in any way accurate, but in a situation like Rachel's, people can sometimes be blinded by their optimism. Then again, what other choice did Rachel have? Death?

It's possible Rachel didn't even know what she was doing, deep down, but she wasn't about to let death take her. Not like this.

When she finally reached the end of the corridor, she used the altar at the end to clamber up to a roughly standing position and take a closer look at the thing floating above it.

_... So now that I'm here, what am I supposed to do with this thing? Just reach out and touch it — ?_

As she thought it, she did it, and as she did it —

_**She felt it.**_

She felt her body being flooded with energy, like drinking too much coffee, but without the jitters. She'd gone in a near-instant from the brink of death, to being fully renewed and revitalized, from one edge of the vast spectrum of vitality to another. It was as if her soul was freed from her body, in a sense, leading her to only one initial conclusion:

"I see. So that was _that_ light." _And I'm dead for real, now. ... Well, at least there __**is**_ _an afterlife. I had always worried about that. I've got the same body, and that implies it's not the infinitely perfect reward some religions preach. But I'm not on fire, so it can't be the infinitely painful punishment, either._

On a sudden whim, Rachel held out her hand and willed a Keyblade to appear in it — and a Kingdom Key promptly appeared in a flash of light. _Huh. How'd I know that would work?_, she wondered, swinging the Keyblade around experimentally. _I don't remember anything like this in any of the games..._

As Rachel was pondering this, she looked behind herself, and gazed at the architecture behind her. It was the hallway she had crawled along, which, upon a second glance, seemed to look like the result of an overly-funded religious organization. It had a visual style akin to a temple, possibly one she'd seen in a fantasy game she'd played once. If it was a temple, it seemed to be related to water, given the water trickling down the walls into the artificial river below the walkway she had just crawled across.

_I wonder who designed this place. It does __**look**_ _really cool, but it could use a lot more accessibility._

Rachel shrugged her shoulders and turned her gaze up to the altar where the light had been before, except this time, she looked slightly above it, and beheld something that actually shocked her, rattling her form down to her very core.

_This... the... what?_ Try as she might, she just had no words.

What she was gazing upon, jaw hanging limp and eyes bulging, was a stained-glass image of herself, suspended in a pose that implied she was floating, eyes closed, her right arm slumped over her right leg, and her left arm hanging limp, the hand on the end gently gripping onto the Keyblade. It was the same pose Rachel had seen Sora and Ventus in, within the games she played.

_So that's... the Dive to the Heart pose. Which means that either I am having a __**really**_ _elaborate and self-consistent hallucination, or... or... I don't even want to contemplate any alternatives, actually._

Behind the image of Rachel was a picture of a large circle, containing a number of smaller circles — images of Kira, Sarah, and Jules, plus several more abstract symbols that probably represented friends she had only met online.

"That green bird is Claire, which makes the other bird Mary... And that lightning bolt is Monty, and —" she burst out in laughter suddenly. "Oh, that 'thonking' emoji has to be Garrett. The nerd emoji is Tiki, and of course, the snake is Amelia. And the bunny eating a peach is Mallow, I think. Yeah, Erika must be that doll. The science girl is Éowyn, and that flower must be Meadow... A cat could be, like, half of everyone I know, but I think this _particular_ cat has a Rose vibe to it. The blue heart is Blue, of course. This is really fascinating, there are _so many_ of these, somehow I hadn't realized just how many friends I have..." And some circles that she couldn't identify, because she couldn't make herself look at them directly without flinching away, and she didn't know why. "... Gods, I really hope they're all okay somehow."

**Don't worry... Your hearts will bring you together.**

Rachel froze for a few moments, before nervously forming an answer. "Um. Hi there, strange voice?"

**Oh, good, you **_**can**_ **hear me now. There's so much to do, and so little time... But it'll be fine.**

Rachel tilted her head in thought. "Strictly speaking, what I'm doing doesn't seem to be _hearing_," she said, tapping her ear. "But yes, you're much more comprehensible now... Do you really think our _hearts_ will bring us back together? Are you _aware_ of exactly what happened here?"

**About the same thing that happened to my world, from the looks of it.**

"... Oh. ... Sorry."

**I mean — don't be, my whole point is that we found each other in the end! So surely you will too!**

Rachel wasn't sure that followed, but didn't feel comfortable contradicting the other person at this point. "So, um, question: what are we _doing_ right now?"

**Well, I dunno about you, but **_**I'm**_ **trying to save your life.**

Rachel was understandably unsettled by this. "That's a great idea and I completely approve — but also, save my life from _what_?"

**Right this moment? Them.**

Rachel almost asked who "they" were, before she spotted them — numerous Shadows, rising from nowhere, all around her.

Rachel scrambled onto the top of the altar, her head darting around at the hostiles rising up around her. "No, no, nonononono, I did _not_ sign up for this!"

**No, you didn't — but unfortunately, that doesn't matter.**

"Nope! NOPE!" Rachel cried out, jumping over the Shadows, and running along the walkway back in the direction she just came from, body-checking the double-doors leading back to the pool. However, they refused to budge, no matter how hard Rachel hit the doors.

"Open! OPEN!"

**Yeah, that door isn't going to crack.**

Rachel let out a grunt of frustration, and drew the Keyblade, and started to hit the door with it.

**That's not going to work, either.**

Rachel pointed the Keyblade at the door in a similar way to how she'd seen Sora do it, when unlocking a Keyhole in one of the games.

_**No.**_

"B- b- but — I'm no fighter! I mean, yes, I took self-defense classes, but that was in case some _human_ saw my trans pride pin and took it as an open invitation for a stabbing! Not to fight monsters that _shouldn't even exist_!"

**You can't run from this. I'm so sorry, but you've got no choice. Turn towards them, and face them down.**

"Oh... This can't be good..." Rachel mumbled, as she turned towards the hostiles, shivering, her hands gripping the weapon tightly.

**Don't let fear get the better of you. Don't underestimate yourself, or your weapon. You can do this, I believe in you!**

_Yeah, like that ever does much in the long run._

Rachel nervously stepped forward. The forces of Darkness were already closer to her than they were before, but now one of the Shadows moved forward, almost hungrily. Rachel took a deep breath, and slammed the Keyblade's teeth down on the Shadow's head, gripping the Keyblade like an axe.

"_Yargh!_"

The attack hit home, and the Shadow was pulverized.

Rachel pulled the Keyblade back up, and stared at it in shock. "Th... holy crap, _that worked_?"

**Good! Keep going! Don't let up, push back the darkness!**

_...Well, that's one way to put it. _Rachel raised her Keyblade, and continued to fight through the swarm, one Heartless at a time as they charged down the walkway, as Rachel slowly moved towards the altar, striking the Heartless down as they came towards her, and brushing a few away with sideways strikes, into the pool below the walkway.

It even got to the point where one Heartless simply disappeared into the ground on its own, and darted away. _Well, that takes care of —_

**Behind you!**

_...Oh. Right. _Rachel half-turned her body and turned her head to face where the Shadow had materialized, and, with a low swipe, cast it off the raised path and into the water below. Just one more downward strike, and the Heartless were gone, a fine black misty dust flowing off of the pathway and into the pool of water, where it dissolved entirely.

_What __**is**_ _all this nonsense?_ Rachel thought, breathing heavily from the exertion. "... Listen, this is a dream, right? Maybe not mine," she added, fiddling with the ring on her middle finger, its numbers somehow still legible and not changing order, "but someone's. How do I _wake up_?"

**I'm... not sure. I'm sorta just following the same pattern I went through and hoping that leads to the same conclusion.**

"... Right."

**You gave your power shape, then you experienced battle... what was next?**

A door appeared on the wall behind the altar.

"Is it 'go through a door that shows up suddenly'?"

**... I think you were joking, but actually, that sounds about right.**

Rachel gesticulated inarticulately for a few moments. "... Okay! Whatever. I will go along with this, if only because I have absolutely no other ideas." Before the voice could respond, she yanked open the door —

— and with a flash of light, she was back in the coffee shop, with Jules, Kira, and Sarah.

"... What."

**... Well, I do remember this part, but it doesn't make much sense even in retrospect. Your friends have questions for you.**

"But _how am I even_ —" — _back here?_ Rachel cut herself off, suddenly noticing that the place was absolutely devoid of anyone but herself, her friends, and the harried-looking barista that had brought the four their order. "... It's not real, is it?" Just to check, she looked out the window, noting that she could see a little way into the presumably desolate and abandoned streets, but the rest was covered by some kind of fog that Rachel wasn't entirely sure she recognized.

**I suppose that depends on your definition of 'real'. It's not the actual place you grew up.**

"I mean, neither is the real one — never mind, that's irrelevant." She shook her head in exasperation. "All right. Ask me your questions, bridgekeepers, I am not afraid," she quoted, approaching Kira.

"Rachel. What are you so afraid of?"

"Ouch. Calling me out on my crap right off, are we?" Rachel closed her eyes in thought. The answers to immediately spring to mind included things like "fascist uprising" and "runaway climate change", but they didn't seem right. Like they didn't match the _spirit_ of the question, or weren't _complete_ answers... _Ah! There it is._ "Watching helplessly as people suffer."

Kira nodded.

**... Does that happen to you a lot?**

"More than you'd think," Rachel said, reflecting on her many online friends that were stuck with abusive family. _I guess I'm... __**technically**_ _better off on that count... _She snapped out of her reverie and frowned. "I gotta say, this part definitely makes even less sense this time than when Sora did it."

The voice seemed to hesitate before answering. **I mean, I'm not actually controlling this, just kinda... directing you through it. **

"Mm. I could tell." She turned to Sarah. "You?"

"What do you want out of life, Rachel?"

Rachel blinked. "Uhh... I don't know, affection and maybe some snacks?" she ventured, quoting from the Twitter mini-bio of a writer she had followed recently. "... That was a joke, but honestly, it sounds pretty nice. Let's say that's my real answer, then."

**Affection and snacks...? You kind of remind me of me.**

"Really? How so?"

**I was caught up in something like this myself... if it were up to me, I'd retire to a nice island with all my friends, but of course, stuff just keeps happening.**

Rachel nodded in sympathy. "The stuff never stops happening, does it?" She sighed. "Anyway. Fake Jules, what's your question?"

"... What do you consider to be the most vital component to uphold a decent standard of living? Provided, of course, that there can be such a thing in this absolute existential nightmare that we all hopelessly occupy, on the road to the grave which we will one day lie still, as our bodies decompose, and our nutrients are returned to our planet's soil?"

**...What?**

Rachel blinked. "Are you... messing with me?"

"Of course I am," Jules responded, summoning a ham and cheese panini out of nowhere and proceeding to take a bite out of it. "Answer the question."

**I think she means 'what's most important to you'.**

"I _got_ that —" Rachel halted mid-snap and took a breath. "...No, I take that back, I probably wouldn't have gotten that on my own. What's most important to me..." She took a while to consider this one. "A lot of things are important to me, and picking the _most_ important one is hard... but... I think, overcoming the natural human instinct to prioritize the in-group over the out-group, by expanding the in-group to include as many people as possible," she concluded, nodding.

**... Oh! You're doing the unnecessarily-verbose joke too, and you mean the thing that's most important to you is friendship. I get it.**

"... I was completely serious," she mumbled.

"Friendship, huh?" Jules said, taking another bite of panini. "Seems like a rather typical answer, to me. As were your other two, come to think of it. Do you genuinely believe these things, or are you just trying to impress somebody?"

"Impress _who_? There's nobody here but me and my weird mental reflection things!" Rachel was rather annoyed at this, more so than usual when speaking to Jules in real life, her hands balled into fists, arms flexed and pointing downwards, and her posture bent over forwards slightly. "I'm speaking from the heart, here!"

"Oh, are you? Really, now?... Rachel, do you even know who you really are?" Jules retorted, in a calm and serene manner.

"Wh- what does that even _mean_?!"

Jules shrugged. "I'm a manifestation of _your_ crap right now. You tell me."

Rachel threw her hands up in exasperation. "Okay! Cool! I don't know what's going on anymore! Is my experience curve set or not? Also, what does that even map to in a world that isn't a video game!"

Upon hearing this, Jules started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. "Ha! Haha! Hahahahahaha! Look at you, Rae-Rae! All lost and confused! Do you think I've got answers? Questions are all I have for a girl like you! Why don't you keep on panicking, huh? Why not? Your situation does seem rather hopeless! Burning an entire building down just to kill a few Shadows? Hell, I'm not sure you even truly got them!"

"Why is this place so gods damned _weird_?! What is the purpose of this exercise?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Experience curve, questions, all that candyfloss. Feeling nostalgic, Rachel? So, are you waiting for the nice voice to tell you when your adventure begins? Sunrise? Midday? The _dead_ of the _night_?"

At this, Jules pulled out a Molotov, and casually tossed it behind her, causing an explosion of sparks to puff outwards, and the wall behind Jules to gradually catch on fire, as the flames spread out across the said wall. Rachel backed away nervously, noting that her other two friends were nervously looking for an escape route.

"This isn't even real! Why are you — but you're a manifestation of — argh?!"

"Fine, then! I'll answer this question of yours! Your adventure begins... IN THE MIDST OF A _FUCKING ECLIPSE!_" Jules cried out, making an extravagant gesture, as her face twisted into something horrible. "AN ECLIPSE WITHOUT A SHRED OF HOPE, AND _NO SALVA_-"

**Stop!**

...

...

Rachel blinked in confusion. "Um? Why'd she stop?" She looked at her other friends, and the flames, and — "It's _all_ stopped."

**Yeah, I **_**just**_ **now figured out I could do that. And not a moment too soon, because this conversation didn't seem to be helping.**

"I see." Rachel took a breath, carefully not freaking out about all of this. "What... _what_," she said, unable to come up with an actual question.

**I'm gonna try something different.** The voice paused a few moments. **You mentioned a trans pride pin thing earlier. Is that the stripey one that looks kinda like toothpaste?**

"_Toothpaste—_?!" Rachel was almost offended, before thinking about it a moment. "Uh. I _guess_ that's a comparison that _someone_ could make?" _What flavor would it even be, cotton candy? ... I guess all cotton candy is officially trans, the mysterious voice in my dream-that-isn't-a-dream declared it canon._ "I don't have any other stripey pins," _yet,_ "so you probably have the right one. Why?"

**Why would someone take that as an invitation to stab you?**

"... Seriously? Do you live under a rock?"

**No, I live in a different world.**

"... Sure. Okay. This is a dream, I can play along." She rolled her eyes, then took a deep breath. "... Hell, if I'm playing along with this idea — do you even know what 'trans' _means_?"

**Uh... across, through, on the other side of? I'm not really sure how that's a trait people have or are proud of, though. Is it short for the word 'Transcendence' or something? 'Transcending', perhaps? 'Transcended'?**

"Well... strictly speaking, no, though depending on who you ask, transcending might be _involved_... who you ask and how you define 'transcending', anyway." She rubbed at her eyes in exasperation. _I've never actually had to explain this from nothing before... In a world where the internet exists, I didn't think I'd __**need**_ _to!_ "So... In this context, 'trans' is short for 'transgender', and I'm going to assume you've never heard that word before, because if you had you wouldn't need me to explain this."

**... Across, through, or on the other side of gender? ... So, like, you changed your gender?**

"Almost. Strictly speaking, I've always been a girl... just, for the first ten or so years of my life, nobody actually _knew_ that. Including me. Point is, when I was born, the doctor glanced between my legs and scribbled an M on my birth certificate, and one day I woke up and said 'unfortunately that was the wrong answer'. People are bound to guess wrong sometimes when they only have one data point to work with. All that's normal in my world, dunno about yours. I hope not, though."

**And people **_**stab**_ **other people over that?!**

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "Set us on fire, too, sometimes. But to be fair, that's fairly unusual — most people settle for mere psychological torture. Like indirectly threatening their own children with homelessness. Or directly threatening. Or actually doing it. Actually I guess that's a step _past_ 'mere psychological torture', but never mind."

_**Why would someone do that!?**_

"I wish I knew, really... near as I can tell, people just don't like what's different from them. Hence my answer to this simulacrum of Jules, earlier." Rachel glanced around the room, idly noting how strange time-frozen fire looked before her eyes settled, once again, upon Jules, frozen in place with her arms raised in some form of dramatic gesture, and her face in a twisted expression. "She's been in a similar spot, too. The real Jules, I mean. There's a lot she wouldn't tell me, but... her parents were very Christian. And Jules... didn't immediately _see the light_ the way they think a good Christian kid should."

**Wait, what's a Christian?**

"Wh—?" Rachel facepalmed. "Oh my gods, we've become the side characters in a Chick Tract... Christianity is a religion, and the details aren't important right now. My point is that Jules didn't meet with her parents' expectations of how to live up to that religion, and they... Hey, should I even be telling you this stuff? For all I know, you're like, ten years old and can't handle it."

**Well, I'm a few years older than **_**that**_**...**

Rachel frowned. "I dunno, some of this stuff ended up being too heavy for _me_, and I'm pretty tough... Suffice to say, she wasn't treated well, and the cops were... even worse than cops normally are."

**Wh, well, how old are **_**you**_**, anyway? You don't look like you could be **_**that**_ **old!**

"I just turned sixteen, and are you getting _defensive_ about this?"

**You're **_**younger**_ **than me!**

"And probably tougher too," she said, folding her arms.

**I'm sorry, **_**which**_ **one of us was whimpering about fighting a few measly Shadows not ten minutes ago?**

"Oh, low blow! How am I _supposed_ to react to facing down nightmare creatures that aren't even supposed to be real? And then I'm expected to _fight_ them? That's completely different!"

**Yeah, I **_**bet**_ **it is.**

"Would you even _know_?" Rachel tried to turn away from the voice in disdain, only to realize that she didn't actually know which direction the voice _was_. This had the odd result of her just spinning a complete circle and looking very annoyed about it. "Ugh, _forget_ all this, I'm leaving!" And with that, she marched over to the coffee shop doors and —

and with a flash of light, she was back in the previous room, next to the altar.

"Oh, come on..."

**Sorry. Guess you're stuck with me.**

Rachel groaned in annoyance. "Never mind being stuck with _you_, I'm stuck _here_! There's nowhere else to go!" She glanced over to where the door that led to the coffee shop had been, and it was gone as mysteriously as it had appeared. "Just the pool room... Am I supposed to go dive for something?"

**Not likely. Look.**

Rachel looked around to see something that surprised her. On the walls, up above where her head was, she could see a small number of glowing keyhole shapes, imprinted on the walls, which, quite frankly, were _not there_ before.

She summoned the Kingdom Key. "Keyholes. Keyblade. I've heard about video games, I can put two and two together. Though to call this a 'puzzle' would be an insult to the 12-piece jigsaws for four-year-olds..." She frowned. "But wait a minute, what would activating those keyholes _do_?"

Rachel looked around at the keyholes, before looking back down at the ground, to see if they connected to anything obvious. The only thing clear was that the altar was actually shaped not exactly like a circle, but like a circle with spokes coming out of it, similarly to a gear shape. The spokes interlocked with the walls in a certain way, thanks to the cylindrical walls around the platform having indentations that the spokes of the platform fit into, somewhat loosely.

Rachel shrugged. "Well, might as well try it. Not like much could be worse than sitting around here indefinitely." She pointed her Keyblade at the nearest keyhole and... _Wait, how do I shot key?_ Frustrated, she let the Keyblade fall to her side for a moment... and then it pulled itself back up, pointing firmly at the target and unleashing a thin beam of light, which struck the keyhole dead center.

_... Like that, apparently?_ Rachel blinked a few times. _I almost followed that, actually._ She turned to the next keyhole. _Do it again?_ The Keyblade took control again, but this time she closely paid attention to the posture of her arm, as well as — she didn't have the words for it, she'd never felt that sense before, but it was unmistakably a _pull_ — and it shot another beam, unlocking the next keyhole.

_Hmm... So like this?_ She pointed the Keyblade at the next target, holding it like a rifle, with the handle braced against her right shoulder and the shaft held steady in her left hand, and focused on the unfamiliar sensation, this time trying to _push_ on it — lo and behold, another beam of light shot forth, unlocking the third keyhole.

**Huh. I don't remember doing anything like this at all. And you're holding your Keyblade differently now, too.**

"Clearly that's because I'm more awesome than you," Rachel said, looking for a fourth keyhole. _They're not spaced evenly, what's up with that? Is it just as aiming practice, or — ah, there's the thing._ Once more, she pointed the Keyblade and shot the unlocking beam at it. "Whew. That's kinda tiring. Why is that tiring?"

**If I had to guess, I'd say the improbably small amount of aether in your body.**

"... Aether? Like, the fifth element, the thing the heavens are made of?" Rachel was so incredulous that she didn't notice her slight stumble as the platform started rising beneath her, as water poured from the walls in large enough amounts to quickly fill the pool of water beneath the altar platform, and the platform, which apparently wasn't as heavy as one would think, floated atop the rising water.

**... I don't know where you got **_**that**_ **idea, but I'm pretty sure the heavens aren't full of aether. That would've made saving you a lot simpler.**

"Cause I was gonna say, last I checked the heavens aren't full of anything at all — wait, saving me from _what_? ... I ask for the second time."

**... From aether deficiency? Do you guys not know about aether here?**

"Last I checked, aether was made up to explain how light goes through space when waves shouldn't be able to travel through a vacuum, and then _that_ whole idea was debunked over a century ago... Somehow I don't think that's what you have in mind."

**Aether is the source of magic! And living things need it to survive! I learned this in grade school, Rachel!**

"I'm pretty sure magic isn't —" _real._ She stopped and looked down at the _very obviously magical_ Keyblade currently in her hand. "Hm. Well, magic isn't _supposed_ to be real, anyway..." Rachel said, a slightly nervous tone entering her speech. _I don't know how to reconcile the new observations with the old observations. ... Unless, again, this is a dream._ She fiddled with her ring once again. _But the reality checks don't back that up._

The platform suddenly came to a stop, causing Rachel to stumble again. "_Elevators..._" she grumbled. Rachel looked all around her, noticing nothing but darkness... Until she noticed a light streaming in from what looked like the end of a tunnel.

"The... light at the end of the — are we _sure_ I'm not just already dead?"

**I sure **_**hope**_ **you're not. I broke several rules in an attempt to keep you alive, and it'd be frustrating for that to turn out wasted.**

"Um... thanks for that, then," Rachel said. "..._Why_ would there be rules against that?" But the voice was apparently unwilling to answer that, and after a few moments of silence, she gave up.

As Rachel moved towards the end of the tunnel, she noticed that the outside area of said tunnel was covered in a large amount of sand, and Rachel walked out of the tunnel, looking at the large amount of sand in question, in a state of confusion.

She paused and kicked at the sand. For quite a while.

**Are you all right?**

"I feel like I have a question, but I can't imagine what piece of information could possibly make this less confusing." She shrugged in resignation and moved on.

After a moment, Rachel looked up slightly, and saw a massive wall bordering the pit of sand. Further up from that, was a massive seating arrangement like what one might find in an arena of some kind.

After looking around the area, noticing the tunnel closing a gate over the opening behind her, Rachel realised exactly what this was.

Rachel immediately turned around, summoned her Kingdom Key, and rapped it smartly against the gate.

**Um...**

"I knew that wouldn't do anything, I'm just mad and wanted to hit it." She turned back around and looked around the arena.

Within what appeared to be a cavern, with majestic waterfalls cascading far off in the distance, and shafts of light streaming down through the rocks above, was an ancient arena, one where one might expect to see gladiators battling each other, showcasing their skills in the art of combat.

The arena was packed with spectators all around, looking down at Rachel, all of them in quite the fervor, like a bunch of sports fanatics eager for some form of entertainment, no matter how twisted it may be. But what really got Rachel's attention wasn't so much the excited crowd of fanatics, but instead, the amount of Kingdom Hearts themed decor around the arena itself. In fact, the entire arena seemed to have a very strong Kingdom Hearts theme indeed, the walls being decorated with numerous symbols from the series, such as heart symbols, crossed Keyblades, and all sorts. There were even a few Heartless symbols worked in.

"This is... really blatant." _Was someone worried that I wouldn't have caught on by now?_ She shook her head and brandished her Keyblade. "Let's get this over with."

"'Let's get this over with,' she says!" a bombastic voice announced from seemingly nowhere. "Our contender fancies herself a _gritty_ one, doesn't she? And yet you can still see her shaking in her boots, even from the stands."

"_Shut up,_" Rachel said, gritting her teeth.

**What the... That voice?**

"Now, _there's_ a witty retort! 'Shut up', she tells me, the _announcer_. Unfortunately for our contender, talking is literally my job."

"I don't know why you're being such a _pain_, or why you're stealing Sora's voice to do it, but like... seriously, screw you."

"Not in your wildest dreams, sister. And I'm here for the same reason you are — to give the crowd a show! What say you, crowd? Do you want a show?"

The crowd erupted into cheers.

"Well, you heard 'em, contender! The crowd wants _blood_! Let's give it to 'em, shall we?" And as the announcer spoke, Shadows and Soldiers emerged from the sands around Rachel.

"It's too bad for you... that Heartless don't _have_ any blood... isn't it?" Rachel was trying her best to sound tough, but the creepy announcer stealing Sora's voice was right about one thing — she was absolutely terrified right now.

"Hey... uh, voice," she whispered, hoping the mysterious voice could just hear her directly. "Now that I've found my magic, I don't suppose you can explain how to cast spells? Like, Magnet would be really useful right about now."

**I don't think you have the energy for that. You barely have enough magical energy to **_**live**_**.**

"If I don't have an edge, I might not have enough _blood_ left to live!" Rachel hissed.

**Hey, I don't mean you can't **_**spellcast**_ — **just that Magnet's too much for you right away. But something more basic... Probably something fitting your elemental affinity...**

Rachel dodged a Soldier's attack, then quickly knocked it away before it recovered. "Explain _faster_!"

**Right! Um, you'll want to channel your magic through...** The voice began, rattling off a series of instructions that were seemingly spoken with an impressive degree of confidence, considering that they didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever.

"Um?" She weaved through some more attacks and battered a Shadow back into its component matter. "I _think_ I got the idea?" _I caught a __**few**_ _of those words, like "aetheric current"...? It seems pretty similar to pushing my magic through the Keyblade to shoot the unlocking beams, actually, so let's try..._ Dodging away from the group, she pushed her magic, more aggressively this time.

She watched in amazement as a glowing black orb formed on the tip of her Keyblade, and then curveballed off into the nearest Soldier, disintegrating it immediately. "Whoa!"

**Huh, I don't recognize that element — but good job!** The voice said, briefly pausing. **I don't suppose **_**you**_ **know which one that was?**

"Unaspected, I'm pretty sure," she said, blasting another Soldier.

**Is that possible?**

"It must be, I just did it! Twice!" She jumped back from the Heartless again and cast another spell. "Make that three times. I don't think I have a fourth one in me, though..."

**You can cast more efficiently by— **and the voice said some more words Rachel barely understood —**but I'm not sure that's possible if there **_**isn't**_ **an element...**

"Maybe! I'll see what I can do!" _I think that means... instead of converting raw magic into elementally-charged magic through my personal whatever, I just... pull the elemental charge directly? And for a non-elemental spell, that's... nothing? I can see why that would __**sound**_ _impossible, but what if I tried..._ Through a remarkably expedient sequence of actions, she managed to unleash one last blast, destroying the final remaining Soldier and leaving only a horde of Shadows. "Yep, that'll do it. And there's definitely no juice for a fifth spell..."

_My mental model of magic is remarkably well-formed,_ Rachel reflected, _considering that I've understood __**maybe**_ _about 20% of the instruction I'm basing it on... You're helping me out with that, too, aren't you?_ she thought to the Keyblade. To her great disappointment, the Keyblade did not think back — at least not in words, but Rachel did find herself feeling an unaccountable intuition that it was confirming her guess. Though she wondered whether she was just imagining it...

"And Team Darkness loses its best fighters, the Soldiers!" the announcer announced. "Bet our contender thinks she's some hot stuff right now, doesn't she?"

Rachel shrugged loudly with a smug look on her face. "I mean, I can beat _these_ weaklings, at least..."

"We'll see about that," the announcer intoned darkly.

And at that, the Shadows broke off the attack and gathered together into a writhing mass, which rose off the arena sands and towered high above Rachel.

"Um..."

"The Demon Tower, everyone! Our contender worriedly notes that she hasn't seen this one already. Is she outmatched?" A pause as the audience shouted incomprehensibly. "... Of _course_ she is. From the beginning, this fight — but it can't even be called a fight, because a fight can be won by either side. _This_... was only ever going to be a slaughter.

"You had no chance from the beginning," the announcer said, gliding out from the announcer's box to hover next to the Demon Tower — and of course he _looked_ like Sora too, he was already stealing his voice, why not his face as well? "You're hopeless. Helpless. _Useless._"

_**BURN.**_

An orb of fire streaked in from somewhere, directly at the announcer, and —

stopped in its tracks, frozen in front of his outstretched hand.

_**What?!**_

"My, my. Is someone trying to interfere with our match?" He crushed the fireball in his bare hands, leaving not so much as a cinder. "No." With a gesture, he pulled on — _something_ — and it gathered into an orb of light in front of him.

**How — you're not even **_**real**_**!** And Rachel noted with terror that the voice was no longer sourceless, but _very distinctly_ emanating from the orb of light.

"Our contender will face her fears — _alone_." And with a snap of the announcer's fingers, the orb was gone.

"No!" Rachel cried.

"Relax, contender," the announcer said, smirking evilly. "He's not _dead_ or anything. I just kicked him out of _here_. Now... it's just you and us. The way it's _supposed_ to be."

Rachel aimed her Keyblade directly at the announcer. "I will _**end**_ you!"

"With _what_? Magic isn't fueled by _pants-shitting terror_, you know."

An orb of the same glowing black magic began to form on Rachel's Keyblade.

"... White-hot fury, though, that's been known to do it," the announcer admitted. "Unfortunately for you, this place is _my_ domain." And with a casual gesture, Rachel was engulfed by the _other_ Demon Tower.

"Oh, whoops... too much. I wanted to toy with her more before finishing her off..." The arena and the Demon Towers faded into nonexistence, leaving only the announcer.

He shrugged. "Well. I'm sure she'll be back. I'll think of something."

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "things that might not have actually happened"...**_

"... What? It's the third chapter, and she's the protagonist, you _know_ I can't have killed her off already. That's no spoiler." He paused in contemplation. "I might pull it off towards the end, though. Let's say, once the final chapter count goes up on AO3? That should give me a good two or three chapters of room, if our author keeps on track.

"Also, stuff like this in the end notes probably isn't canon. Maybe. Look, don't ask me to comprehend the mind of an author who I'm only even aware exists for ninety seconds a chapter at most."


	4. When Things Get Too Real

ATUHOR'S NOSE: Oh yeah, I still haven't played re:Mind, so no, there are no allusions to that in this fic. Anything that looks like it might be is coincidental. Please don't spoil it in my (comments)[reviews]. Also no allusions to certain current events, or to... um... that would work better if I had a longer list but that's all I've got.

* * *

Traverse Town was... crowded. Very, very crowded.

Being the intended place where refugees of fallen worlds would find refuge, it had the ability to magically expand itself when it was nearing its capacity, and it had used this ability several times, and it was still _very_ crowded.

"_HOW_ are there this many people?" Yuffie exclaimed. "I knew there was going to be a lot of people, but this is _so many people_!"

"The thing about that," Merlin said, "is quite simply, that there are — or, er, _were_, a lot of people in the Prime Cluster."

"I know that," she huffed.

"Yes, yes, you knew that, but did you really _know_ it?" Merlin retorted. "Or did you simply remember that survivors making their way to Traverse Town was a rare event, and not bother wondering how that multiplied out? People aren't very good at comprehending very large numbers, you know, we don't really grasp their sheer magnitude..."

"Which is why you use _calculators_ for math," Cid said. "Silicon and electricity don't have that problem." He closed his eyes in thought. "... Though, I'd still have underestimated it myself. Just not by as many orders of magnitude. I think those worlds're more populated than we realized."

"We should probably sweep the outskirts for survivors again," Leon interrupted.

Predictably, the flow of survivors had been trickling to a halt. At first, there had been so many survivors showing up they couldn't blink without seeing someone who hadn't been there a minute ago. But now, they'd only recovered seven survivors in the past day. Nobody wanted to point out that Leon's reminder had come _two_ hours after the last sweep, and they had been sweeping every hour until then.

"... Yeah, let's get going," Yuffie said. "Aerith's still busy in the field hospital, so it's the four of us, right?"

After everyone was clear that it was indeed just the four of them, they headed out to the outskirts of Traverse Town. They left the town proper through the usual way, the door in and out from the area they knew as the First District leading towards the main landing pad for Gummi Ships, before traveling up some stairs, leading out to the outskirts, away from the core districts, and out into an outdoor area, outside of Traverse Town proper.

The four of them split up and headed in various directions.

Merlin and Cid headed in one way, across some farmland with some houses both directly next to the farmland, and around the nearby area, presumably built by those who like their solitude, and their peace and quiet. Beyond that, down a small path, was a specially made Gummi Ship that was, in practice, a mix between a cruise liner and a submarine, that was locked onto a special pathway that leads between Traverse Town and Twilight Town. It wasn't currently running at this time, and the one between Traverse Town and Radiant Garden wasn't even open to the public at all at this time, only a certain number of people.

Yuffie and Leon headed in the opposite direction, which had a small number of houses and farmland of its own, as well as a large amount of water, with a small pier and boathouse. In addition to this, there was also a beach. Members of the committee had previously been to this beach before when trying to get some leisure time. Yuffie herself had some memories sprawling out on the cool sands, alongside Aerith, watching the beautiful moonlit water.

As for the search, Yuffie was quickly darting around aimlessly, hoping to catch a sense of anything of interest, whereas Leon was somewhat more slow, methodical, and diligent in his search.

The area wasn't all that easy to search either, due to the surrounding area being rather low on visibility, which was thanks to numerous forms of plant life, trees, bushes, and other greenery dotted around. It wasn't unheard of for some survivors to wake up tangled in some form of plant life, like the branches of a tree. One refugee had once woken up in a bush, looked up at the night sky, and had sworn off drinking for the rest of their life.

Yuffie kept on scanning the area at a brisk pace until she uncharacteristically started to slow down. They'd done more than a few sweeps of the area recently, and the drudgery was starting to wear on Yuffie's entire being. Leon was more disciplined and patient with such matters, and he kept searching the area in his own way, but even he was starting to feel that such things were futile.

Yuffie was almost ready to give up entirely when she spotted a streak of light in the sky, falling towards the beach. She pulled out her radio. "Leon, I've spotted something at the beach, it could be a survivor." Without waiting for a response, she shoved the radio back in her pocket and dashed off to check it out.

Leon caught up with Yuffie at the beach a few minutes later. "For gods' sake, Yuffie," he muttered. _We have protocols for a reason, don't just run off on your own_, he didn't bother saying out loud. If it hadn't gotten through Yuffie's head the first three dozen times, it wasn't going to happen today.

"No _time_ for protocols, Leon!" she responded out of sheer habit. "There could be someone on the brink of death here, a second could be all the difference!"

_The protocols account for that_, Leon again didn't bother saying out loud. This time, Yuffie was too busy dashing frantically around the beach to answer the unspoken statement.

"Over here, Leon! I found someone!"

For all it was worth, Leon didn't have Yuffie's level of perpetual excitement, but he was still willing to hurry when he felt the situation actually called for it, and now that the (possible) survivor had actually been located, he wasted no time rushing to their side. Yuffie was already there, pulling a body from the water by the limbs, and resting them on the sand of the moonlit beach, before checking over the survivor.

The survivor in question was dressed in blue jeans, a purple t-shirt, and had somehow managed to keep hold of a beaten-up looking blue backpack with a bunch of pins and doodads all over it, despite their ordeal.

"_Libra_," Yuffie cast. "Hmm... A bit shaken and beat up, and her aether — well, it's fluctuating weirdly, and it's kinda low, but it's not getting _dangerously_ low. Wonder what that's about?" She quickly glanced over the fallen individual and their possessions. "Hey, she's got a pin on her bag saying 'she/her'. You know, in case anyone isn't sure!" She quipped, turning her head towards Leon.

"That only happened _once_," Leon grumbled. _Not __**my**_ _fault that lady looked the way she did..._

"And thanks to this pin, it won't happen a second time," Yuffie declared cheerfully. "Hold this for us, will ya?" she added, tossing the girl's bag to Leon as she hoisted the girl's body over her shoulder in a fireman carry.

"_Really_, Yuffie..." _Protocols... stretchers... having literally one iota of patience..._ Leon sighed as he pulled out his radio. _Next time I'm pairing off with Cid._ "Found a survivor, guys..."

Cid responded over the radio very swiftly, like a man who had nothing better to be getting on with, currently. "What? Really? We haven't had many findings for a while, Leon, you've managed to find another? I thought we were done for survivors already!"

Leon gave a dead-pan reply in response. "I thought so too, but we've found another." At this, Yuffie whistled, prompting Leon to hold the radio over to her.

"I saw something falling from the sky, some kind of streak of light in the sky, heading towards the beach. Seems like it was this girl, landing in the water off the shore of the beach." Yuffie explained. "Her vitals seem fine, but her aether... It's fluctuating in a really odd way, I'm not sure how best to explain it."

Once Yuffie had said this, a new voice came over the radio, taking over from Cid. "Her aether? Fluctuating?" Merlin inquired.

"Yeah, it's just really odd, I'm not sure what's going on. I haven't seen it before, have you?" Yuffie spoke into the radio.

Leon cast a Libra spell of his own to get a better look at what Yuffie was talking about. "That's really weird..." _I want to say I've never seen anything like it before, but... that feels incorrect, somehow. Like I __**should**_ _know what I'm looking at, but I've always seen it in the wrong context until now._

Merlin pondered for a short while. "Alright, alright. Cid, keep searching for anything else of note. Yuffie, take the girl to Aerith, immediately! I will meet you there to examine her, and have a look at her."

* * *

You might think that having access to healing magic would make running a field hospital very easy. But Aerith was only one woman, and she only had so much magic to work with — even ethers could only stretch her magic so far.

Of course, she wasn't the _only_ white mage there, but the fact remained that magic was a limited resource, and needed to be saved for the most critical cases. For the rest, there were bandages, sutures, potions, and... y'know, the whole profession of medicine.

Aerith was moving swiftly through the area, weaving around, as her pinkish-red dress flowed with her movements as she gracefully dashed between the scattered survivors. Her eyes darted around to see if anybody could possibly be in danger of having their condition take a turn for the worse.

Thanks to the work of her fellow white mages, and other personnel, numerous survivors had been stabilized, and some were even able to lend extra pairs of hands to the effort. This was a very good thing, considering just how many survivors Aerith had to deal with.

_I've never had to care for so many people at once_, she thought to herself. _It's... exhausting._ Though despite her near-constant state of exhaustion these days, and knowing that wearing herself out wouldn't be any help to these people, in the long run, Merlin still frequently had to _order_ Aerith to take a break.

They were also not as well-stocked in various supplies as they should have been, having to apply potions by gently applying the healing liquids to various sterilized cloths, and use them to apply just enough potion to any wounded survivors.

Aerith had volunteered to help with that as well, by synthesizing more potions when she wasn't actively caring for patients, but she had been sternly informed that that particular task was well in hand by people who weren't needed for healing.

The overall atmosphere wasn't pleasant, either. The smell was what one would expect from such a place, not too repulsive, somewhat sterilized and medical, whereas the sounds of constant rush and panic, cries and screams from survivors in immense distress thanks to their unfortunate situation...

In fact, Aerith had even noticed one or two patients staring at her in particular with eyes widened in shock, but she didn't understand exactly why. _It's not as though I've ever met any of these people before. What about me could possibly be so startling to them? Is it the way I dress...?_

Suddenly, the sounds of the makeshift hospital around Aerith were disrupted by an incoming radio call. "Aerith," Merlin said, "Leon and Yuffie have found another survivor."

Aerith glanced around at the dozens of survivors already surrounding her in this room alone. "That's not news by itself, I'm sure. Is there something unusual about this one?"

"There is indeed. Her aether is fluctuating very peculiarly. I'm going to have a look at her myself, but before I arrive, I thought you might lend your expertise."

_Fluctuating aether...?_ "I wouldn't call myself an _expert_ on magic, but..." _Admittedly, I do know more than Leon and Yuffie would._ "Yeah, I'll check her over."

"Good, good, they should be arriving any moment now." Sure enough, Aerith could distantly hear the familiar sound of her two friends bickering over something or another. She quickly finished up what she was doing and headed out to meet them, grabbing a camp bed on the way out.

"... why would cavemen even be fighting astronauts in the first place, again?" Leon asked, sounding completely baffled.

"Because _the moon's haunted_, Leon, try to keep up!"

Leon looked over to Aerith with an expression that most would read as exasperated, but Aerith knew actually meant _save me, I'm completely out of my depth!_

"Leon, Yuffie," she greeted the two, setting the camp bed on the ground. "I'm told you have an unusual patient for me?" This was a bit redundant to point out since Yuffie was clearly still carrying the unconscious girl over her shoulders, but it would hopefully change the subject.

"That's right," Yuffie said, laying the girl down as Leon roughly dropped her bag at the foot of the camp bed. "Her aether is fluctuating something weird."

"Yes, Merlin told me," Aerith said, looking over the unconscious girl. "Anything else I should know?"

"She was washed up on the beach..." Yuffie paused for thought. "We think she might have landed in the ocean, so she might have inhaled some water, but she seems largely okay aside from the aether thing. Oh, and those scratches on her shin, those look kinda nasty."

Aerith looked at the girl's wound. It didn't look too deep or infected, but it was barely closed up and had an angry red color to it — under normal circumstances, Aerith's first guess would've been that it was only a few minutes old. Given that she'd been found on the beach, one might imagine that she had brushed up against a rock or something else sharp in the water, but three _parallel_ lines suggested something else entirely. And it looked like whatever inflicted it had gone right through her jeans to do it, judging by the matching tears in the fabric.

"Another Heartless attack," Aerith said, gently dabbing potion on the wound. "It's kind of unsettling, isn't it? Heartless appearing in all of these worlds, all of a sudden."

"I imagine that's just how our enemy wants us to feel," Leon said, lowering his voice to avoid bystanders overhearing him. "I don't know if this was the goal, but as long as we're occupied caring for the survivors, we can't really go after them and stop their other plans..."

"_Libra_," Aerith cast, looking over the girl. "Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about that. Hmm... That's interesting."

"I know, right?" Yuffie declared. "It's like... it's like... it's weird!"

"It's like her aether is just falling out of her body like it isn't there, but something keeps pouring more in." Aerith frowned. "I don't know where the extra aether is coming from, but... the leakage... that's a lot like the times we were too late, isn't it?"

Leon blinked. _Of course._ Not everyone they had found had still been alive, and of the dead, many of them had been leaking aether just like this girl — only without being refilled. "That's a _lot_ of aether, though. Judging by the rate of fluctuation, she must have pulled at least a few thousand kilothaums just since we found her. And depending on how long this has been going on..."

"Wherever she's getting all that aether, it's gonna run out eventually!" Yuffie declared. "We need to find a way to stop the leak before that happens."

"Well, Merlin is on his way," Aerith said, "so I'm sure he can come up with something. In the meantime, we're running low on potions again."

"We're on the job!" Yuffie declared. "Come on, Leon." And with that, she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him off to the makeshift alchemy lab.

Aerith looked at the unconscious girl in reflection. "Y'know, you might end up saving a few lives, just by arriving like this." _If we can figure out how to stop this type of aether leakage, we might find it useful for future arrivals._

* * *

_"... hey! Hey, wake up!"_

Sora was awoken by what sounded like a distant muttering. And also a hell of a headache. He groaned in pain.

"Sora! Are you awake, Sora?"

He groaned again, covering his ears with his hands. "That hurts, Jiminy... _why_ does that hurt? What happened? Don't answer that, I don't want to hear things yet."

He was prepared to spend several minutes lying there in agony before he felt a wave of healing magic wash over him and the headache _almost_ faded away. He opened one eye and saw King Mickey looking over him.

"Hey there, Your Majesty... Ow..."

"Are you all right, Sora?"

Sora nodded, as he pushed himself back to his feet. Looking around, he appeared to be back in — not _his_ Gummi Ship, but _a_ Gummi Ship, presumably the King's. "Better than I was a minute ago." He paused a moment, trying to figure out why his head hurt so much. "... What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," the King responded. "I just found you a few minutes ago. Jiminy said you found a survivor and... explain that again, Jiminy?"

"The beaming-up gizmo went off suddenly," Jiminy said, "and when we got back to the ship, you were passed out, and the girl wasn't there."

"Oh, it was working _then_, was it," Sora grumbled. "I think I need some water..." He blinked as an extra-large water bottle poked him in the face. "Oh, thanks Jiminy." How the cricket could carry things several times larger than himself like that remained beyond Sora's comprehension, no matter how many times Jiminy had explained it.

Sora took it upon himself to tip the water bottle towards himself until it was just a few degrees away from being entirely vertical, draining the container of all that it contained in a desperate attempt to curb his affliction. His headache started to subside, and his mouth felt much less dry and barren.

The King decided to chime in as Sora was finishing his well-needed drink. "So, Sora, when you and I split up, what happened after that?"

"Right, um..." Sora took a moment to mentally retrace his steps. "A missile flew past, so I chased it to a planet, where it set off a weird weapon that knocked the entire ship out of commission —"

"It did what?! How?"

"I... don't know," Sora admitted. "There was a flash of light, and everything just... shut down."

Mickey frowned and tapped a few buttons on the ship's computer. "Your ship computer reports that it's mostly functional now... a few functions are still rebooting. So that's why it was like that... A strange weapon, to shut down your ship without leaving any permanent damage."

Sora took a breath before continuing. "Anyway, then it and a whole bunch of other missiles blasted the planet with darkness, and I took a Teeny Ship down to investigate —"

"What?!" Mickey exclaimed. "How did you _breathe_?"

"I can breathe underwater, Your Majesty, so I just kinda..." He summoned the water globe again. "Did this," he glubbed. Having gotten the point across, he dismissed it and continued.

"After crash-landing, thanks to the weirdly strong gravity, I killed a Darkside, chased after a voice, ran into some _crazy-powerful_ zombie-looking Heartless..." He paused sheepishly. "... I almost got killed by those things, I need to train a _lot_ before I come back to this world. Um, but as I was running away from those things, I finally found her, the only survivor I saw in the entire world. And then..." He winced. "_Something_ happened. I don't remember..." _Well, I remember deciding to Bequeath her a Keyblade, but... I don't remember anything __**after**_ _that!_ "Her name was Rachel. I remember that... How did the beaming-up gizmo go off, anyway? I didn't push it... Did I?"

Jiminy shook his head. "No, it just sparked suddenly and we were pulled back up to the ship."

Sora frowned. _And since it was still locked to us, it didn't take Rachel with._ "She's still down there..." Sora looked out the window at the shattered remnants of the planet below. "It's such a huge planet, even broken into pieces like that... I could spend days just trying to find the same city again." _If the Keyblade didn't fix her, there's no way I'll find her in time. And if it did fix her, she'll be able to handle herself. So there's nothing I can do for her right now... but..._

"Your Majesty, how do we _fix_ this world? I know the worlds that fell to darkness before were restored when I closed the door at the World Terminus, but... that doesn't sound like something I can just do again."

If he didn't know better, Sora would swear he heard the King mutter something like "I wouldn't count on that." Before he could wonder what that was about, the King had moved on. "We need to report back to Master Yen Sid anyway. There might be something useful in his library."

* * *

_Rachel. Don't open your eyes, but you need to wake up._

_Uh, I'm not sure if..._ She tried doing as the voice said, mentally pushing herself up to full consciousness while keeping her eyes shut. ..._Ow. My head hurts a lot._

_I know it does. But you need to hear this._

_... I'm listening._

_Not me, them._

"... Go over that again, a little slower." A deep, sardonic-sounding voice.

"A brown-haired girl, carrying a blue bag with a bunch of pins and doodads on it, including a pin that says 'she/her'." A tinny voice, like from an old speaker. Rachel, upon hearing that there were people outside, nearly had her eyes flicker open.

_No, don't open your eyes! You're still asleep, okay?_

_This is quite the task to be throwing at me literal seconds after I've woken up, brain._

_Breathe slower, too! ... Damn it, that's worse, I shouldn't have said anything._

_Yeah, you've made me __**aware**_ _of my breathing!_

_Ugh, just — just listen, okay, and I'll see if I can..._

"That does sound like one of our patients." A fairer, gentler voice this time. "What did you say was important about her?"

"That's the thing, I don't actually remember! Something weird happened and it messed with my memory..."

_... That sounds bad._

_It __**is**_ _bad! I was worried about where this was going, and this was basically the worst-case scenario._

_... Really? This, and not, like, cultists planning to sacrifice me to a volcano?_

Rachel suddenly had a very distinct image of someone rolling their eyes at her. _Of scenarios that are actually __**possible**__, obviously. Wait, we're getting distracted, focus on them!_

"Well, whoever did it, I'll make sure they regret it." An energetic voice.

Rachel cringed inwardly. _Do they think... I did that? Whatever that was?_

_Definitely. We need to get out of here._

_**Now**__, with everyone here? I mean, surely they don't perpetually hang around this... place, whatever kind of place — _

_It's a field hospital, and you're right, they don't._

_How do you __**know**_ _that!?_

_Well, I did wake up first, and I overheard some stuff._

_If you can gather information so darn well without me, why'd you even need to wake me up at all!?_

_It's — it doesn't work like — we need to stop arguing and listen!_

_That is a __**complete**_ _non-answer— _

_Rachel, please!_

Seething inwardly, Rachel turned her focus back to the outside world.

"... Well, she's here," said the sardonic-sounding person, "so as soon as you arrive, we can see what she has to say."

"Do not lose track of her," a different, older-sounding tinny voice said. "The answers she provides could well be key to resolving this attack."

Rachel took a moment to think about this. _Erm, what? Did I hear that correctly? The answers I provide? Do they mean to..._

_...Look, just stay calm, okay?! Keep your head down! Control your breathing! Don't you __**dare**_ _let them know you're awake!_

_How the crap am I supposed to do that?! They're gonna __**interrogate**_ _me! _Rachel continued to think to both herself and... _not_ herself, apparently. _I don't know what they might try to get their answers out of me!_ Vaguely-formed images of sharp and pointy objects flashed through her mind.

_Rachel! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it! Look, if they do interrogate you, just answer as honestly as you can! Tell half-truths if you have to, or twist your own words! And don't be ambiguous!_

_Oh, yeah, that helps._

_And be wary of any food they give you! It might be spiked with something! And just stay calm, and don't speak unless you have to! That's __**really**_ _important, you don't want to say anything you'll regret!_

_As opposed to times when I __**would**_ _want to say something I would regret? And aren't you getting ahead of yourself? Plan A is to __**get the hell out of here**_ _and avoid being interrogated entirely!_

_I know! But it doesn't hurt to work on Plan B while we wait. We're gonna be waiting a while, until everyone leaves and we're alone. Well, as alone as one gets in a field hospital..._

* * *

Rachel waited impatiently, eyes held closed and breathing held steady, for what could have been anywhere from five minutes to four hours — and felt like an eternity. But eventually, the three voices were absent and she risked cracking an eyelid.

She saw a big blur.

_... Darn it, I don't know what I expected, without my glasses._

After a moment's consideration, she decided that with the limited information available to her, this was as good a chance as she could possibly get. Throwing caution to the wind, she opened her eyes fully and looked around.

It was still blurry, but she didn't see any flesh-colored blobs walking around upright, which she took as a good enough sign that she could sit up safely. What was also a good sign was the blue blob at the foot of her camp-bed, which she strongly suspected was her backpack.

She grabbed it and began rifling through it, looking for one thing in particular even as she took stock of what she had. It wasn't long before she finally found her other pair of glasses — these were tinted, intended for use in bright sunlight, but they'd have to make do.

_Okay. I can see now._ She tentatively flexed her leg muscles, not sure if she wanted to test standing up yet. As far as Rachel could tell, her body seemed to be in normal working condition, but she'd never been any _other_ way, so how would she know the difference if she wasn't?

_From the looks of it, there's nobody here but us and the other patients_, the other voice interjected. _Making this —_

_The perfect time to escape, I know. Sheesh, when did you become such a busybody?_

_When our world exploded and we got thrown into a never-ending struggle for life and death?_

_... Okay, yes, that would do it._ Looking around, the giant tent only seemed to have the one entrance, making it trivial to guard against anyone trying to sneak out unnoticed. Which was a problem when that was exactly what you were trying to do.

_Assuming they are, in fact, guarding it. This is a field hospital, not a prison._

_Old radio man also said not to lose track of me, though._

_True. Hmm..._ The two of them mulled that over while Rachel looked around. All of the other patients seemed to be asleep; this and the low light level — Rachel frequently had to lower her glasses to get a good look at things — implied it was late at night, though she couldn't see outside to confirm that.

_I could... just... open the door?_ Rachel thought sheepishly.

_That plan has __**so**_ _many flaws... and I can't think of a better one._

Carefully, Rachel made her way to the tent door (_Is it a door? - It isn't __**not**_ _a door..._) and peered through the crack at its edge. Nobody seemed to be standing just outside, so she risked opening it and stepping out.

It was indeed night, as confirmed by the sky full of shining stars. She seemed to have woken up in an old-timey looking town, with its cobblestone paths and rustic buildings standing out incongruously next to the very modern field hospital tent.

"Thank _something_, it's a little brighter out here," Rachel muttered, looking around. "Nobody in sight... no idea where we are... no idea where anything else is." She sighed, picked a direction at random, and started walking.

* * *

Rachel looked around at the area she was in as she walked. The place had a weirdly warm and cozy vibe to it, and seemed to have a rustic, 1700's-1900's aesthetic to it. Rachel just kept going. Nothing else to do, and more than anything else, Rachel did not want to die from what was, as far as she could tell, having a very bad trip involving fictional monsters coming after her very soul.

And then she remembered she'd just left a tent with people talking about her in it. As she walked, she pondered to herself.

"What was up with that, anyhow? And what's up with the overall look of this place? It looks rather old-timey, right?"

_Maybe you've time-traveled into the past, or something._

"Maybe I'm wandering around a tourist attraction, and I'm still hallucinating a little bit."

_...Eh, maybe. Just keep going, and try and find some aid. That's all you really can do, right now._

Rachel proceeded to do just that, forcing herself to keep moving, passing through huge wooden doors from area to area, picking exits almost at random.

"... why are these _doors_ so _heavy_? And why are there so _many_ of them?"

_I don't think they're that heavy, actually. I think you're just weaker than usual, right now. How long have we been out? When was the last time we ate or drank anything?_

"How could I _possibly_ know that?" Rachel responded, in a rather irritated tone of voice.

_I dunno, does your phone still work?_

Rachel blinked. "Huh. I... didn't think to check."

_No, you didn't. Do that now, all right?_

"Okay, _mom_. Sheesh." Rachel rifled through her bag for her phone, since it wasn't in her pocket like normal... and it wasn't there, either. "... Um. Problem. It's missing."

_Hm. That's weird. It must have fallen out of your pocket on the way here._

Rachel sighed and started walking again. "Part of me wants to panic about that, but... I just don't have the energy."

Rachel kept on going, despite her lack of energy. Across the next minute or so, her energy levels were left even lower, and Rachel was practically running on fumes. And after the day she'd had, she might as well have been fuming. Eventually, she came across something that might save her poor, long-suffering body from dehydration.

"Hey, do decorative fountains like that typically contain potable water?" Rachel asked, coming to a stop, and looking over at a fountain.

_I suspect you already know the answer to that question._

"I mean, I've never looked it up! Maybe they do!"

_Unlikely. And I don't think we've reached the stage of dehydration where we're better off just drinking it anyway._

Rachel whined. "I'm thirsty, darn it... where do you get potable water in a place like this? And why is this place giving me deja vu?!"

_Doesn't it kinda look like... that one district in Kingdom Hearts? Where Sora fought the huge armor thing?_

Rachel halted in her tracks. She looked around at the huge space around her. The ground was split into squares like a checkerboard, and the area was so wide and vast that it felt like it was _too_ big. Rachel started to feel disorientated. "... No way." She looked around. "It's... _identical_. What...?" She stood there for several seconds just boggling at this realization. "Why is it identical? It even has the balcony... And the 'First District' sign is right up there..."

_Well, I don't think Disney World has an immersive Kingdom Hearts experience, so that rules out your first guess. ... Only guess. You're not even paying attention to me._

Indeed, Rachel was too occupied heading for the nearest exit. Unfortunately, the exit was no escape; barging through the door that normally led to the First District revealed the iconic twin lampposts, the bizarrely shaped postbox, and a staircase leading up to the shops, and other buildings.

"What?! Here, too?!"

_Um, obviously? Where else would that door lead to —?_

Rachel turned around and headed for the other exit, charging up the stairs and hoping beyond hope that it would somehow not lead to the Second District.

_It literally says 'Second District' — _

"Why?!"

_Because that's where it leads to — _

Rachel shoulder-charged her way through the big, wooden doors, only to be confronted by the alleyway that the exit would naturally lead to. Rachel stared in dumbfounded shock for a while, before staggering down the path.

"Why am I _here_!? _How_ am I here?! Why and how is here _a place that even exists!?_" Rachel screamed out, spinning her head around, swiveling it to and fro. She could feel her tears start to leak out.

_I'm fairly sure you remember the answer to that question better than I do._

"No. No, no, nope nope nope, impossible... no." Rachel slumped against the nearest wall and slid to the ground, mentally and physically exhausted. She took her bag off, and put it beside her, resting her hand on it, in an attempt to lighten the load she was carrying around.

_... Which part are you objecting to?_

Rachel slowed down for a bit to try and compose her thoughts into something that sufficiently resembled words within a coherent sentence. "... Traverse Town is meant to be a refuge for those whose worlds have fallen to darkness, right? I don't remember the details, but..."

Rachel took a moment to think, as her body started to shake and shiver. "If my world actually _has_ fallen..." _Kira... Sarah... Jules... everyone... _Rachel started to grasp the reality of the horrific situation she'd fallen into. Her mind started to buckle under the stress, before Rachel mentally slapped herself awake, twitching her head. "NO! This is... This is fake! I'm still hallucinating, or something!"

_It wasn't fake before... remember?_

"Traverse Town is a _fictional location_! Heartless are _fictional creatures_!" Rachel cried out. "I _hallucinated _all of that! That _can't_ have been _real!_"

_Why would you be hallucinating, anyway? You're stable, right?_

"I don't know! Maybe that pumpkin pie slice I ate screwed around with my brain, somehow! Kira and Sarah saw the Darkside, too!"

_Jules didn't eat any pumpkin pie, she had a panini. And yet, she still saw it._

"We could still have all been seeing things! Heck, I could have imagined their reactions, too! None of this is real, it's that simple!"

_...Well, explain how you got hurt by the Shadows, then!_

"I don't even have the claw marks on my —" but then Rachel thought to actually _look_. The claw marks weren't visible, but that's because they were covered by a bandage. And whatever shape her shin might or might not have been in, her _jeans_ still had a tear where the Shadow had taken its swipe.

And speaking of Shadows... a few more of those were emerging from the ground right in front of Rachel's eyes, on her left side. "No... no, no no no —" She tried to get up and run, but her body refused to respond. _I'm... completely defenseless! I can't even run away... Is this really it? Is this actually how it ends? Oh, please, it's far too soon... _She thought, looking to her right, noting a potential escape route, if only Rachel wasn't literally too exhausted to stand up.

Rachel looked over at the Shadows, approaching her with what seemed to be a strange curiosity, assuming that the Heartless were capable of such. Maybe it was just the way they moved in general. Rachel just stared at them, her heart having already sunk. _Just get on with it, _she thought, having already become too tired to even speak. _And make it quick._

_Are you really just giving up? Then... oh. Either the body really has nothing left in it, or... either way, I can't help you. I'm sorry, Rachel._

"Yeah, not on my watch."

_What?!_

Just as the sardonic voice that Rachel had heard from earlier rang out, and Rachel's body bolted upright in confusion, a series of gunshots rang out, causing Rachel's entire body to jolt in shock. Rachel just stayed staring out into absolutely nothing in particular, for a second or so.

_What was THAT?!_

Rachel quickly turned her head towards some footsteps she could hear, wondering what was going on, when she saw a brown-haired figure with an assortment of belts wrapped around himself, a black coat that didn't even reach his waist, complete with a white fur trim, and a massive sword with a hilt resembling a revolver, making the weapon a cross between a gun and a blade...

Taken in as a whole, the figure resembled somebody who _absolutely should not be real. _And when Rachel laid eyes upon this particular person, a few things clicked in her mind. Rachel could feel, instinctively, that this was what reality was now.

"_You_, kid, are a real handful..." The figure was saying something more, but Rachel wasn't listening.

The man didn't look like they had been rendered by a computer. They looked entirely real. As soon as Rachel's eyes set upon the person who shouldn't even exist as far as Rachel knew, her resolve was tested once again.

In a fraction of one single second, Rachel's mind and soul were pushed beyond the borders, further than they'd been pushed when Rachel gazed upon the Heartless. Indeed, that moment had been very stressful for her, but she had been able to keep herself together, even if she had to deny what was blatantly in front of her, disregarding the monsters as hallucinations. But she had managed, regardless.

But now, with the world that now completely surrounded her, and this new presence that should not be, everything in this moment had gotten too real, and the implications became too much to bear. Being caught within _Traverse Town itself_ was one thing, but now that this person's presence had confirmed her fears, Rachel couldn't keep denying everything to her heart's content. Not anymore.

_AAAAHHH!_

Rachel's mind screamed out, and she forced herself to her feet in an instant, and she took off at a dead sprint towards the exit to the alleyway, moving away from the figure that her mind was doing everything in its power to not consider.

_NO MORE! NO MORE, PLEASE!_

Rachel turned a corner, grabbing a corner of a building, and she literally threw herself down the cobblestone path, in a mad dash to get away from what was behind her. She threw herself down the alleyway into the main, vacant square, and took a sharp left, running towards the stairs.

_I CAN'T TAKE THIS! I CAN'T TAKE IT AT ALL!_

Rachel kept running as fast as her long-suffering body would allow, across the cobbles, taking a u-turn, and quickly proceeding up the stairs towards the doorway leading to the First District.

_ANYTHING BUT THIS! THIS IS NOT OKAY!_

She moved as quickly as she could, quickly hopping over the borders of the path she was on, and cutting a corner just to shave off some time, without giving the reason for wanting to do such a thing any thought. Rachel barged her way through the doors to the First District, paying no mind to the new, more feminine figure chasing after her from the right.

_IT'S TOO MUCH!_

Rachel ran as fast as she could, turning the tight corners around the buildings as tightly as she could muster, leaping over small sets of stairs on the way, with her pursuers still somewhere behind her. Rachel didn't know the exact distance between herself and them, as she outright refused to look behind her for even a second. She then came to the stairs leading down to the twin lamp posts...

...And Rachel, her body exhausted beyond belief, stumbled down the stairs, lost her footing, and collapsed to the ground, the sudden impact of the ground beneath her snapping Rachel out of her panicked state just enough for her to notice how much her body ached.

Rachel, strong-willed as she was, tried to get back up and keep moving, but only just managed to make it to one of the lamp posts before her entire body finally buckled, and she finally went down for the count, on the grass surrounding the lamp post.

Her impossibly familiar pursuers caught up to her and said some words she wouldn't make herself comprehend. "Please..." she sobbed. "Just... I just..." She didn't even know what she was trying to ask, she just knew she didn't want _this_.

_... Rachel. Can you hear me?_

"And _you!_" she whispered harshly. "What even _are_ you? How do you _exist_?"

_No, right now what you need is a reset. Sleep, would you kindly?_

_... _

_..._

_... It didn't work. I was kinda hoping it would... _

_I know, and I was hoping that'd be enough to make it work ... Just close your eyes, then, okay?_

_... Okay._

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "things that almost happened"...**_

_You say they're fictional, but... 'did you know that there are a lot of fictional stories in which the Earth is populated by creatures called "humans"?'_

"Don't you quote _Luminosity_ at me! And how is that even an argument?"

_... Honestly, I'm not sure, but it seemed really convincing when Bella said it._


	5. Welcome to the Beyond

CO-AUTHOR'S NOTE: James here. I would like to make it clear to all those not already aware that this story was written by a transgender lesbian woman who pre-ordered Animal Crossing, and a straight cis-male who pre-ordered Doom Eternal.

Readers, you are advised to fasten your seatbelts.

(ATUHOR'S NOSE: As fond as I am of the stereotype reversal memes with those two games, this time, the edgy boy plays the edgy game and the soft girl plays the soft game. Eh, maybe the memes have gone around enough by now that this counts as a reversal of the reversal.)

* * *

Leon cursed loudly when he spotted the field hospital's tent flap hanging wide open. _Not a peep all night, but I leave for __**five minutes**_ _to take a leak and __**that's**_ _when something happens?!_

He rushed inside and, on a hunch, shined his flashlight directly at the brown-haired girl's camp bed.

She was gone, and so was her bag.

Leon cursed again, then quickly counted the remaining patients — seeing that nobody else was missing, he stepped outside and pulled out his radio. "Aerith, Yuffie, we've got a situation. That girl Sora told us about — she's gone." Leon announced, bracing himself for some very loud sounds from the radio.

As one might expect, this caused a fair amount of commotion on the other end of the radio. Yuffie could practically be heard planting her fists on her hips in a huff, while also limbering herself up.

Aerith quickly got herself to the radio, and fired a question at Leon. "What about the other patients?! Are they all okay?!"

"Yeah, they're all accounted for, it's just the one we needed to keep track of that we've lost track of." Leon replied, his voice possessing a hint of bitter sarcasm.

"Oh, for _crying out loud!_" Yuffie exclaimed. "That was the most crucial thing, and you _already_ messed up!"

"I left for _five minutes_, Yuffie! _Five minutes_! I just went to take a leak, and she just upped and left!"

From the other end of the radio, Leon heard Yuffie suppress an irritated scream. "Look, just get on her trail, okay?! I'm gonna climb up to the rooftops and search from there! You cover the streets! Go!"

Yuffie promptly shut off the call. Leon tore after the girl as best as he could.

* * *

Leon rushed through one of the newest districts — what was this one, the 17th? — frantically searching for the missing girl. A few stray Shadows rose out of the ground, but he batted them aside almost without sparing them a thought. _Fine time for the defense system to be out of contact again!_

In addition to the defense system in Radiant Garden, a second defense system had been enacted within Traverse Town, in order to protect those who couldn't protect themselves against the Heartless, should they find themselves attacked by them. Tron, still in his usual place within the Hollow Bastion castle, was connected to this second defense system via an innovative new technology... Albeit a technology that was still in a rough alpha stage, with many, many kinks to work out.

Some more Shadows emerged, and he weaved past them — and skidded to a stop as he realized something was wrong. He turned back to look at the Heartless and saw that none of them were chasing after him, but instead, they were creeping off into the next district. _They smell blood in the water. If that's not our missing girl, it's someone in even more trouble than she is._

He quickly followed the flow of the swarm, taking cheap swings at individual Heartless when he could do so without slowing down. Before long, he found their target — the missing mystery girl, collapsed in an alleyway in the Second District.

_It looks like I was just in time_, he thought, charging toward a Shadow that was preparing to pounce on her.

"Yeah, not on my watch." With two swipes of his gunblade and two pulls of the trigger, he had cleared a substantial space around her. He looked back at the girl, who he noted was suddenly more alert. "You..." _What was her name, again? I swear Sora mentioned a name..._ "..._kid_, are a real handful."

And then she bolted, back on her feet in an instant.

"Wh — hey! Don't _run off_, there's Heartless everywhere..." _And she's already gone._ He chased after her and pulled out his radio. "Aerith, Yuffie, I found her in the Second District, she's heading to the First."

"On it," Yuffie replied.

Within seconds, Yuffie had made her way to the Second District, where she spotted the girl charging for the exit. "Hey!" she shouted, dropping from the rooftop. "Stop, will ya? You're gonna hurt yourself!" But the girl was completely unresponsive, simply continuing to run. "Shoot, she's having a panic attack or something..." She fumbled with her radio as she tried to keep up with the girl. "There, ha! Aerith! This girl's really freaked out, we need your 'mom' powers in the First District, stat!"

"Yuffie, are you still —"

"Thanks!" And she turned her radio off and shoved it back in her pocket. Strictly speaking, that was against protocol, but so were a lot of the things that Yuffie did.

Aerith had already been running toward the First District after Leon's warning, and arrived just in time to see the panicked girl lose her footing trying to charge headlong down the stairs, tumbling to the ground.

"Hey!" she called out. "It's okay, we're not going to hurt you."

The girl struggled, trying to get back to her feet, but seemed to have broken down entirely. "Please... just... I just..."

"It's all right," Aerith said soothingly. "It's safe, okay? You're safe. Just try to breathe." She held up a hand as she saw Leon and Yuffie catching up, warning them not to get too close.

"And _you!_" the girl whispered harshly, her eyes unfocused. "What even _are_ you? How do you _exist_?"

"What do you mean by that, Rachel?" Aerith asked gently, reminding Leon of what the girl's name was in the process. Rachel's sobs seemed to be slowing down for a minute, but she still wasn't responding to anything Aerith said.

And then she collapsed.

Leon and Yuffie rushed forward, but Aerith warned them off again. "Wait." She gave the unconscious girl a quick once-over. "... I think she cried herself out."

"What was _that_ comment?" Yuffie asked incredulously. "'What are you'? That's just plain rude!"

"I don't think it was directed at _me_," Aerith said. "She didn't seem to be paying attention to... any part of the outside world." She paused. "Though, I can't imagine where it _was_ directed, in that case..."

"Nightmares." Yuffie declared. "Or visions. Or nightmare visions. She can talk that over with a therapist or something later. Right now, we need to get her somewhere safe — where _I_ will make sure she stays," she added, glaring at Leon.

"How was I supposed to know she'd wake up _right that moment_, after being out cold all night —"

"_Appearing_ out cold all night, Leon!" Yuffie said, cutting Leon's protest short. "There's no way that was an accident, she must have been waiting for a quiet moment. Face it, she played you like a damn fiddle." She sighed. "And depending just how long she was pretending to be out, we might have a _lot_ of explaining to do..."

"Speaking of explaining," Aerith said, "Merlin should be here by now, to look over her... 'aether situation'."

"Oh, good, maybe he can figure out what's up with that," Yuffie said. "It's been really bugging me, it feels like I _should_ know what's going on there..."

"Alright," Leon interrupted suddenly. "Let's get her out of here."

* * *

Leon and Yuffie took hold of Rachel's body once again, and started on their way to move her somewhere safer.

Yuffie spoke up first. "So, does anyone know where we can keep her absolutely safe?" She asked, to which Leon had an immediate answer.

"What about where Merlin set up shop before he moved all his stuff to Radiant Garden? I think that place is entirely vacant, and should be safe from any Heartless. Aerith, could you get on the radio and ask him?"

Aerith did just that, quickly acquiring a radio, and getting in contact with Merlin. "Hey, Merlin? We were hoping if we could move the girl to your place, the one you had before we relocated to Radiant Garden?" She inquired, as Leon and Yuffie kept moving towards that particular area. "You'll meet us there? Okay, thanks!" Aerith continued, putting the radio away. "Alright, we move her to Merlin's place, and he'll meet us there!"

The group promptly moved through Traverse Town's streets, with Leon carrying the girl, and Yuffie slashing apart some Heartless that manifested before them as they cut through the Second District, on their way to the third, and from there to Merlin's former place of residence.

They found that Merlin has already refurbished the place, not into a long-term home for himself, but a place that could reasonably sustain someone. Leon brought the fallen girl to the upper floor, where they found a place for Rachel set up already, featuring a bed to rest the girl upon, amongst other things.

Merlin then came over to where they had laid Rachel down, and took a careful, studious look at her.

"Hmm... Well, I must admit myself stymied as to the source of this additional aether," he said. "But having had some more time to observe the leakage, I think I can at least solve _that_ problem."

He waved his magic wand over her body, a magical glow surrounding both of them, which soon dissipated into harmless glowing sparks, which dissolved all on their own.

"There we go. A first draft, I'll admit — the seal might decay over time, or break under stress, or not stop the leakage completely, but it'll at least buy us time until I've got the magic refined properly. It's strange, though... it really seems as though her body isn't meant to hold aether in the first place."

Leon frowned. "That... doesn't make sense, on several levels."

"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Like for one thing, how would she _not die_?"

"Well do keep in mind, this is the Prime Cluster we're talking about," Merlin said. "The worlds there aren't even bound by the same laws of physics — that's part of why it's a closed space, you know — so there could be any number of explanations. An abundance of aether in the environment, for example, or perhaps the mysterious aether source is normal in her world and all those who have arrived here without one have... lost it somehow."

"Whatever the reason," Aerith said, "I'm glad we have a solution for it."

"Speaking of solutions," Yuffie said, "We've gotta make sure she doesn't try running off again — _I'm_ gonna stand guard over her this time, of course," she added, glaring at Leon, "but I'm not sure that'll be enough, given that she'll probably try faking sleep again."

"Will she, though?" Leon asked. "She knows we can just catch her again if she runs."

"She might not think that," Aerith pointed out. "She might think we only caught her because she had a panic attack, and that she could escape us next time if she stayed lucid."

"She also knows we expect her to try running," Leon said.

"Which will just make her try _extra-hard_," Yuffie retorted. "No, we need to make it super-extra-impossible for her to escape. Merlin, do you have any magic for that? Like unbreakable magic chains or something?"

"She's not meant to be a _prisoner_, you know!" Leon said. "We just want to make sure she doesn't run off before we can talk to her."

"Right, right," Yuffie said, "some kind of magic that'll keep her here but not come across as jail-ish."

Merlin sighed, rolling his eyes. "You do realize that these are somewhat contradictory goals you're asking of me? Whatever your intent may be, by keeping her here against her will, you _are_ making her a prisoner."

"Maybe we could leave her a note explaining things?" Aerith offered.

Leon and Yuffie boggled at this incredibly obvious and simple solution that they had somehow overlooked.

"That's... _definitely_ something we should do," Leon said. "We'll still want to take measures against her escaping, but a note might help keep her calm. And the buttons on her bag are in our language, so we know she'll be able to read it."

"Okay," Yuffie said, "a note to calm her down. That's definitely Aerith's domain. But we still need to make sure she sticks around... I guess there's no way to do that without it coming off a _little_ bit jail-y," she conceded, "but can you at least make it give more of a 'minimum security' vibe?" Yuffie asked, making a gesture with both her hands open, palms facing outwards, with a sweet, polite smile directed directly at Merlin.

On the contrary, Leon's palm was soon introduced to his long-suffering face.

Merlin frowned upon hearing Yuffie's request. "Well, I do have a fair number of spells that could keep her here... I think the one that would suggest the least hostility is..." He waved his wand once more, and a softly-glowing chain appeared, connecting the wall to a shackle on the girl's wrist. "That chain will change its length to allow just a little slack, so as not to be uncomfortable — as long as she doesn't try going beyond the borders of this room or the en suite there, that is. If she tries that, it'll pull taut. And there's another safety measure or two, in case she gets any truly drastic ideas into her head... but I daresay you shan't be letting her out of your sight, after what happened last time."

"Jeez, you can say that again!" Yuffie exclaimed, while Leon found himself agreeing with what Yuffie said, for once in his life. "I really don't want to go through _all that_ again!"

"All that?" Aerith asked the group. "Actually, I didn't see all of what happened, could someone fill me in?"

Leon decided to answer her before Yuffie could. "She escaped while I was taking a leak, and I found her on the floor, sat up, looking like she'd tired herself out, but as soon as she saw me, she just got this burst of energy from nowhere and charged right off."

"From nowhere?" Aerith replied.

Yuffie took over for Leon. "Yeah, and then she just bolted, and made it to the First District before she seemed to totally run out of energy."

This got Aerith to have a sudden thought, and she put her hand to her chin. "Does anyone know when she last ate or drank anything?" The others exchanged glances and shrugs. "Before she arrived, then, most likely, and who knows _how_ long... We should leave some food and water out for her, then."

Yuffie looked over at Aerith, then her eyes flicked upwards as she thought for a moment. "Yeah, if anything, it might make her feel better after freaking out like that. I'd better go grab some energy bars, then!"

"I was thinking something more like, say, a bowl of fresh fruit?..." Aerith trailed off as Yuffie ran off without listening. "... never mind."

"Can't hurt to have both, I suppose," Leon said. _And so much for Yuffie not leaving her post for any reason._ "I'll grab some. You should stay here and write that note. I'm not sure if she'd react well to _me_ being the first thing she sees when she wakes up, after how she reacted the first time. And I want to talk to Cid about that device she dropped, anyway..."

* * *

An hour or three passed by, and everything had calmed back down after the escapade. The room where the girl was laid to rest was still... Until the girl in question once again started to stir.

Once again, Rachel came to, this time with a severe headache. On reflection, she wondered if, given the short timespan, perhaps it was the _same_ headache.

Rachel's mind was still rather shaken after everything that had happened, so she just lay where she was for a good few moments, trying to get her head back together. All in all, it hadn't been a very good day so far. Rachel tried to gather her thoughts as best as she could.

_Running away... didn't work. Collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration, had a freakout... Why'd I even think running was a good idea, again?_

Despite Rachel's efforts, there was one problem getting in the way of Rachel's impromptu meditation, and that was the severe condition her body was in.

_I need water and headache medicine, like now._ She managed to force herself into a vaguely seated position and then realized she was in a bed. And also shackled to the wall. She stared at the shackle on her arm in shock, unable to even form a coherent thought for several seconds. _... Seriously?!_

_I mean, I guess it's to be expected. We did try to escape._

Rachel groaned. _Can I ask you what your deal is __**now**__, or do you want me to deal with this first?_

_We can multitask, I'm sure._

Rachel grabbed her glasses off the nightstand, noting that as her arm moved closer to the plate at the other end of the chain, it retracted to leave the same amount of slack. "... Magic?" It made as much sense as anything else that had happened in the past day or so.

_So_, Rachel thought to not-herself as she walked around the bed experimentally, _... who the hell __**are**_ _you?_

_That's... well, the hard part of that question is answering it in terms you'll accept. Just to see how much of a gap I need to bridge, who do you __**think**_ _I am?_

Rachel slowly walked across the room to the dresser, keeping an eye on the chain in case it tried anything funny. _That's the thing, isn't it? Two days ago, I'd have said you were... just me, but I think in dialogue for some reason._

_Two days ago, I'd have said the same thing. ... I __**think**_ _that would have been incorrect. Hard to say now, after the fact, but I've been going through our memories, and... you remember that fansite you got banned from when you were eleven?_

Rachel grabbed a water bottle off the dresser and quickly drained the contents. _... Yeah, I think so. For 'inappropriate roleplaying'. Because I pretended to have a fairy companion... who for some reason also typed in my posts. I remember feeling stung when they called it roleplaying because... that's not what it felt like..._

The empty bottle slipped out of Rachel's fingers, making a hollow _tok_ sound as it hit the floor.

_No. No way._

_Well. Not per se. After you suppressed it for the next few years, I don't think Alex is in here anymore. But the... to use a computer metaphor, the circuits that created him never went anywhere. And after your... "parents" kicked you out, you didn't bother suppressing it anymore. Thus, me._

Rachel briefly considered coming up with reasons why this other person couldn't possibly be real, before realizing how silly it would sound to argue someone's nonexistence _to that someone_. She still had trouble believing it, despite the evidence. _A test, though... If you're not me, you must be capable of knowing things I don't know._

_I think I've demonstrated that quite conclusively already_, they responded, accompanying the words with images of them telling Rachel about the field hospital while she was pretending to sleep. _Also, that doesn't quite follow anyway._

_That might have been a dream, so I want to reconfirm it. And if you can do this, which you claim is the case, it'll be sufficient proof. And I need to ask this question anyway._ She took a deep breath. _So... What's your name and pronouns?_

Rachel received a brief impression of surprise, then a flash of amusement. _Okay, fair question. It's they/them pronouns for me, and I don't think I have much of a gender. As for my name, I don't have one yet, but how about... Riley. Like the _Inside Out _girl. Except I'm not a girl._

Rachel grinned. _Fitting inspiration._

_I know, right?_ Riley responded. _That movie really stuck with us, didn't it? You and I, we both thought a lot about that film, didn't we? Seems like we know why, now..._

Rachel picked up the fallen water bottle and moved to set it back on the dresser, idly noting the bowl of fruit and energy bars. _... Nope, mouth still too dry for that. More water._ Instead of setting it down, she looked towards the nearer of the two doors. Conveniently, someone had taped a note to it which read, in large block letters: **Bathroom: Here. Food, water, and answers: On the dresser to the left.**

_Answers...?_ Rachel wondered. She looked back at the dresser, finally noticing an envelope with an ornate wax seal. _... Answers. About damn time. But water first._ She opened the bathroom door and refilled the water bottle from the sink, before draining the entire container again. Finally satisfied, she refilled it a third time and... _Hm. Where's my backpack?_

_They might have kept it_, Riley thought. _One more measure to make sure we don't run off._

Rachel frowned. _Well, I'm keeping it anyway. Shoulda had a water bottle with me from the beginning, really..._

She set the bottle down on the desk next to the bowl and grabbed a random fruit out of it, some unfamiliar tropical-looking thing.

Rachel lifted the unfamiliar fruit, to examine it more closely. _Hmm... _She thought to herself. _I'm assuming this is a fruit of some kind, but I don't recognize it... _Rachel remained in a pondering mood for a moment or two. _Well, to be totally honest with myself, this is hardly the weirdest thing that I've come across today._

_You can say that again, Rachel! _Riley responded, despite Rachel only intending to think to herself. _...Wait, are you __**actually considering**_ _eating that thing?!_

_It's food, Riley. I'm hungry. Heck, that means you're also hungry, right?_

_That's... beside the point! What if that fruit does some weird stuff to our brain?! I'm not ready for something like that! _Riley cried out, giving Rachel the impression of severe distress. _Heck, what if we're allergic to it?! Or if it's poisonous?_

Rachel sighed. _I'm just gonna get this over with, and eat the mysterious alien fruit. Look, whoever these guys are, they're nice enough to give me access to a bathroom, and they're offering answers. I'm gonna take the risk. _Rachel steeled her nerves and took a bite out of the mysterious fruit.

The taste that hit her taste buds was similar to other such fruits that Rachel had tasted, but was also unfamiliar enough for Rachel to involuntarily pull back slightly, and cover her mouth. The taste seemed to be very strong, but that could just be thanks to Rachel's unfamiliarity with the fruit in question.

She paused. She didn't seem to be suddenly dropping dead. _There, you see? No poison, no allergy._

_Maybe it's just killing us __**slowly**__!_

Rachel sighed. _Okay, well, if we're being slowly poisoned, I can... get someone to cast Esuna on me. _She thought to herself. _... And there's a prospect I still can't believe I'm taking seriously._

Riley made an incoherent noise of distress. _Look, they have regular ordinary bananas, why don't you eat those instead? And the energy bars are labeled in English, you can check if they're safe!_

_And Japanese, too_, Rachel noted. _That... makes a weird kind of sense._

As Rachel peeled and ate a banana (which tasted just like a banana, probably because it was a banana), she felt an unaccountable note of confusion. _... Is that your emotion, Riley? Are you okay?_

_I'm fine... but... it's... Not to sound like I'm complaining about it or something, but you're taking this whole me-existing thing unexpectedly calmly._

_Oh, that._ Rachel paused. _Well. It helps that this time around I already know plurality is a thing that exists. Erika, Blue, Rose, Tempest, they're all plural. I've interacted with their headmates, and they were all... nice, and fine, and stuff. Not creepy or dangerous, like the tropes would suggest. And I know the tropes are wrong about, like, everything else involving neurodivergence, but it still really helps to have actually talked to someone directly. ... _She sighed. _I wish I had my phone so I could talk to them now... if the internet still worked... if they're still alive..._

_They might still be alive!_ Riley reassured her. _We're still alive, after all. So it's clearly possible for people to survive that._

Rachel smiled weakly. _Yeah. Gotta hold out hope, right? Let's check out that note, now._

Rachel broke the wax seal, noting that what had looked like an envelope turned out to actually be the note itself, folded over and sealed just like that.

"To Rachael (and I hope I'm spelling that correctly):"

_And they didn't,_ Rachel thought. _We're off to a great start already._

_... How do they know your name at all, anyway?_ Riley wondered.

Rachel shrugged. _At least they got my real name and not my deadname. Score one for __**not**_ _carrying my ID with me all the time._

"To begin with, I want to apologize on everyone's behalf for restraining you like this. I'm sure it's upsetting, but we _really_ need to talk to you, and we don't know why you ran away the first time. I promise we'll remove it as soon as we can."

_They "promise", huh,_ Riley thought sardonically. _We can take that to the bank, I'm sure._

"You're probably wondering where you are. This is Traverse Town, a refuge for those who've lost their world. Unfortunately, your world was lost to darkness,"

Rachel read the words, and her shoulders slumped. _Well, I guess that really was what happened, huh... You know, seeing it written down like this..._

_...Hey, look at the way they've written it! _Riley suddenly cut in. _They're assuming we already know what that means. Why are they doing that? They don't know us, why are they assuming we know what that means? _They further noted, clearly seeing the wording as important for whatever reason.

_We __**do**_ _know that, though._

_Yeah, but they don't know that we know! They __**shouldn't**_ _know that we know!_

Rachel frowned, not sure what to make of Riley's argument, and continued reading.

"... and while I wouldn't like to trouble your mind any further... It seems like this was no accident."

_...__**What,**_ Rachel thought.

_That implies..._

_**Someone... did that... ON PURPOSE?! SEVEN BILLION DEAD, AND SOMEONE THOUGHT THAT IT WAS FUCKING WORTH IT!?**_

_Breathe, Rachel! ... holy crap, how are you thinking so loudly, that doesn't seem physically possible..._

Rachel was seething with white-hot fury, but did as Riley ordered and took a few deep breaths. _... I will find whoever did this, and I will __**end them.**_

_That's a great idea. We should totally do that. _Riley spoke, trying to get Rachel to calm down one way or another. _However, right now, we're not in a position to do much of anything, so step one is to finish reading the note, ideally __**without**_ _tearing it to bits in a rage._

Rachel looked at the note in her hand and suddenly noticed that she had crushed it in a death-grip of anger. She dropped it hastily. _Right. Before anything else, I need to get out of this shackle._ She took a few more deep breaths.

_... You steady now? That came on really abruptly; you're not normally like that..._

_Can you blame me? This person did worse than a thousand Hitlers. ... You're right, though, that did feel... different, than how I'd have predicted feeling about this._

_Hm._ Rachel felt an impression of something like a frown. _That's something to look into, but let's get back to the note for now. _Rachel straightened the note back out and resumed reading.

"We don't currently have much information about what exactly happened, but we're looking into it."

_We'll have to see if we can help with that_, Riley suggested.

_Obviously._

"In the meantime, we're trying to handle the massive influx of survivors — it was more than just one world that was lost in the attack —"

Another flare of anger as Rachel realized the implication — whoever destroyed her world hadn't stopped there. _**How dare —**_

_Rachel, __**breathe!**_ _Save the righteous fury for when we have the killer in front of us._

Rachel took a few more breaths. _Right. Right. Focus. I have a goal, I am working toward the goal, anger for the sake of anger isn't useful..._ She frowned. _Why do I have such a short fuse today? I mean, __**even**_ _considering the circumstances, I'm way quicker to anger than normal..._

_That's something we can work on later,_ Riley thought. _What's the rest of the note say? _Riley asked. Rachel turned her attention back towards the note.

"... we don't require anything from people we help, but if you have any skills that could contribute —" _I'm 16, but okay._ "— your assistance would be greatly appreciated, once you've rested up, of course."

_Isn't Sora 16, too?_ Riley wondered.

_Sora is... special. Possibly the __**most**_ _special. I'm just... a kid with a messed-up body and a messed-up brain. And even less of a support network than I had two days ago._

_**Everyone**_ _who ended up here lost their support network. I would imagine they're trying to build a new one. _Riley said, trying to reassure her chauffeur.

Rachel smiled weakly. _Sure, if you think so. Let's finish the note._

"Until then, if you need anything, there should be someone just outside your door. It'll probably be Yuffie Kisaragi —" and here, there was a cute little chibi-style sketch of the ninja girl, presumably in case Rachel didn't know what she looked like.

_... Yuffie has a last name?_ Rachel thought, immediately latching onto what was clearly the most important detail.

_People have last names, Rachel. All the Final Fantasy characters have last names. __**We**_ _have a last name._

_I would dispute that, given that my parents disowned me._

"— or else I'll take over when she needs a break.

— Sincerely,

Aerith Gainsborough

(she/her)

And next to the signature there was another little sketch, of Aerith herself.

Rachel blinked, surprised. _She signed with her pronouns,_ she thought. _Is that... just normal, around here?_

_More likely, she saw the pin on our bag and is doing it for our sake, thinking it's normal where we come from._

_... Maybe, but in my experience, cis people don't just... adjust immediately, like that, without being asked. Repeatedly. _Rachel scowled thinking about it, almost subconsciously. _Assuming, of course, that they don't just go and —_

_**Is**_ _Aerith cis?_ Riley interrupted, hoping to derail that particular train of thought before Rachel started spiraling. _We've never played Final Fantasy VII, there's a lot we don't know about her._

_... I mean. I know __**one**_ _thing that happened to Aerith in that game. A thing that clearly hasn't happened in this timeline. So I'm not sure the other information would be any use either._

_Hm. Well, there's a P.S, let's read that too._

"P.S. Yuffie here, I'm also a she/her, and if you see Leon —" yes, a sketch of him was here as well, "— he's a he/him. And he's also _very very sorry_ about scaring you."

Rachel got the distinct impression that Yuffie had followed that sentence up by elbowing Leon in the gut and saying "_Aren't you, Leon?_" in a very pointed tone. To which Leon had probably responded by pointing out that Rachel was unconscious and in a different room and would definitely not hear him. But in fewer words, somehow.

Rachel found herself smiling at this thought, looking up from the letter briefly and letting her eyes stare at nothing in particular, as her mind wandered for a brief, fleeting moment before Rachel found herself looking back down at the letter, as her eyes glanced over the signatures present in the letter, imagining Yuffie and Leon arguing at each other, as Aerith put the wax seal on the note that she now held in her hands.

It was at this point that Rachel realized something.

Up until now, a thought had been stealthily crawling through her subconscious mind, but now it had reached her senses, and stabbed them with a sudden strike, leaving Rachel painfully aware of what had been right in front of her, all this time...

Rachel's hands started to shake. Her eyes darted through the letter, top to bottom. Her eyes started to glaze over. _These guys..._

_Take a breath, Rachel..._ Riley thought softly.

_Riley... These guys... These guys are actually real. _Rachel thought. _I mean, first the Heartless, and now this! How... How is this happening?!_

_I don't know, Rachel — __**breathe**__, will you? _Riley responded. _Look, freaking out isn't going to help anything. You've got some water over there, just drink some of that, pull yourself together..._

Rachel kept shaking for a brief moment, before clenching her hands into fists, and then picking up her bottle and taking in more water, at a steady pace, trying to calm her nerves.

_... Okay,_ Rachel thought. _I'm calm. ... But seriously, how is this possible? Like... I can't imagine a comprehensible sequence of events that has this result._

_Well, we can make finding that out our goal, can't we?_

_Our goal? _Rachel asked. _What do you mean?_

_I mean, we don't want to just float about aimlessly, right? So we need a goal. A plan. Something. Finding out how any of this was possible. Taking down the person who destroyed our world. Stuff like that._

_... Right. Goals. Plans. ... I think the first thing we need to do is figure out __**what**_ _happened. I saw earthquakes and Heartless and... the void... and the letter says my world 'fell to darkness', but... that's not actually a whole lot of information, when you think about it. Figure out the what, then the how... then the who. And what I'll do about it. ... Also, find any of my friends that are still alive. Actually, that's __**more**_ _important than the other stuff. Though probably a lot harder, too... Geez, I don't even know where to start figuring this out._

_I'd bet several dollars that getting this shackle off us advances all those goals, _Riley snarked, _plus any other goal worth acknowledging._

_Har har. Obviously._ Rachel sighed. _I guess... I knock on the door and say "hello yes I am awake and cooperative now"?_

_Probably not those __**exact**_ _words. But yes._

Rachel took a deep breath. _Okay. This is... definitely a thing I can do._ She approached the door at a pace that was definitely _very normal_ and _not slow at all_, and if she was moving slowly it was only because she still had a headache.

Upon remembering that she still had a headache, she turned around and went to grab her backpack, which she knew — or, well, _last she checked_ it had contained headache medicine, and hopefully it hadn't been removed in the meantime.

_You're stalling._

_No, I have a headache._

_Your backpack isn't even __**here**__, remember?_

_... Oh, right._ She turned back to the door and advanced once more, at her _totally normal and not slow_ pace.

_One step at a time, Rachel._

Rachel drew in a sharp breath, so she didn't accidentally whimper, or choke back a sob. _This is all still so..._

_It's going to be okay._

_How?! _Rachel's mind cried out. _I... I don't feel up to this... I don't think I can face this..._

_You have to. You have to face reality sometime, Rachel. _Riley stated, rather bluntly. _You're not alone. I'm here._

Rachel took a deep breath. _You're right._

_Of course I am_, Riley thought, somehow grinning despite not having their own body. _Now get going._

Rachel started walking towards the door, this time at a pace that almost qualified as sincerely normal. Once she got there, she took another breath, and looked through the peephole to see who was outside.

_... Oh, my gods, it's Yuffie. _Rachel thought, staring out of the peephole halfway dumbstruck. _And she's __**asleep**__._

The ninja was sitting in a chair, not far from the door, with her body lying limp, and her head rolled back.

_Have we been out __**that**_ _long?_ Riley wondered. Rachel's attention, however, was focused elsewhere.

_She's sleeping like a normal human person._

_She... __**is**_ _a normal human person?_ Riley responded, confused.

_I mean, yes, but... seeing it like that... _Rachel pulled away from the peephole. _Riley, she's right there! She's just... there! Sleeping! Like it's no big deal!_

_She must really trust this magic chain thing. _Riley remarked.

_Riley, that's not — these people aren't supposed to be real! They're supposed to just be characters from a story!_

_They're... clearly not, though. Real human person, there beyond that door. _Riley replied. _Look, think about this: It's only Yuffie. I doubt she'd really want to hurt us._

_I mean... I know __**that**__._

_Then what's the problem?_

Rachel slumped against the wall. _...__**How**__, Riley? __**How**_ _does she exist?! _Rachel wasn't panicking as much as she was now, but she could not help but feel a wave of negativity. _I don't feel safe, Riley! This shouldn't... I can't... I... I... _Rachel took a moment to collect her thoughts to whatever degree she could, with said thoughts being as severely scattered as they were.

In her heart, Rachel felt betrayed by something she trusted. She felt lied to. And the thing that she felt had lied to her was reality itself.

_Nothing makes sense anymore! I don't understand! __**I don't understand! **_Rachel's thoughts blared out. Soon enough, Rachel started to tear up. _Am I in the wrong here? _She wondered. _Is this my fault?_

_What, for not understanding this nonsense? _Riley asked. _I'd say... that's not a useful question. This mess is what it is, and you either understand it or don't — and I'll admit I don't, myself. But there's only one way to figure it out, right?_

_... Yeah, you're right._

_Of course I'm right._ Riley paused. _Didn't we __**just**_ _have this exchange?_

Rachel took a breath, and pushed herself up to her feet, mostly ignoring what Riley had remarked. _I've got to face it, haven't I?_

_It's okay, Rachel. I'm right here with you._

Rachel walked slowly and steadily over to the door. She could feel a friendly, calming presence next to her, like a ghostly hand on her shoulder. Rachel allowed herself to be pushed towards the door, and she looked through the peephole once more. _She's still sleeping, _Rachel noted. _Just a normal... person..._

_As far as she knows, yes. _Riley spoke from inside Rachel's head. Rachel herself could feel her heart beating quickly, as she reached her trembling hand towards the door, with a caution born of anxiety...

_Wait!_

Rachel's hand froze. _What? __**What?!**_

_...Try looking through the peephole while you knock._

Rachel paused for a moment. _Okay, I guess?_ she thought in confusion. For being able to feel Riley's every thought as it formed, Rachel somehow managed to still find them inscrutable sometimes.

Rachel put her head up to the peephole, gazed through at the unintentionally intimidating figure, and formed her hand into an involuntarily shaking fist. Rachel took a breath and gave the door a hard knock. Harder than she had intended.

On the other end of the door, Yuffie, both very promptly and very gallantly, awoke with a start within her chair, and tried to leap into action as if she hadn't been snoozing. Emphasis on '_tried_' since she promptly flopped over her chair, her upper body drooping over the arm of her evidently comfy chair (considering how Yuffie had fallen asleep in it, anyway) causing her tank-top to slip down towards her head which was now dangling over the side of her chair.

Rachel could only stare wide-eyed at what had just happened, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle any possible reaction. _Oops. _She thought, seeing Yuffie flail about trying to right herself. If the circumstances were not as they were, Rachel might have found the situation more than amusing.

_Hey, uh, Rachel? _Riley asked quietly. _I think we're in for one heck of a ride._

Rachel carefully pushed the door open, noting with annoyance that the magic chain pulled taut as her hand crossed the threshold, even though she was standing still. Once she had opened the door, her gaze fell upon Yuffie righting herself and looking around warily, and upon laying eyes on her, she felt a slight chill. She took a breath, and clenched her fists, doing what she could to keep a cool head before Riley could tell her to do so. She also found herself taking a few steps back, away from the door.

_I'm... not sure I can do this._

_Seriously? What __**else**_ _could you possibly do? Just stay in this room forever? You know you can't do __**that**__!_

_..._

_Okay, yes, you __**can**__, but it would be __**completely**_ _unhelpful, so you aren't __**going**_ _to!_

_... I don't know if that's really going to stop me._

Riley's silent shriek and the ensuing heated debate were both cut short by Yuffie poking her head into the room. "Hey, you alive in there?"

"Eep!" Rachel eeped, flailing her arms wildly and falling to the ground, the impact getting a grunt of pain out of her.

Yuffie stared for a moment, torn between shock and amusement. "Well. I suppose that's a yes. Okay, ummm, Aerith briefed me on this... How are you feeling? Less panicky, not so inclined to run off?" Overwhelmed, Rachel just nodded mutely. "That's good, obviously. Not strictly the _most_ important thing, but it'll get you closer to getting that shackle off sooner, so I figured I'd lead with it." As she said this, she pulled what looked like a two-way radio out of her pocket and tapped a button on its side three times. "Physically okay, not in agonizing pain anywhere?"

Rachel winced at the reminder. "My head hurts," she mumbled.

"Hmm, that could mean any number of things," Yuffie muttered, leaning over and looking closely into Rachel's eyes. Rachel froze for a moment in surprise before flinching away, though Yuffie didn't notice as she stood back up at the same moment. "Eyes look... normal, I guess? I'll get you some headache medicine," she said, heading off towards the bathroom, "and if your head still hurts in like an hour, tell someone. Aerith, if you can. She's better at this sorta thing than I am."

Rachel just blinked, still too overwhelmed to speak, as Yuffie returned with a normal-looking medicine bottle, from which she extracted two purple pills and handed them to Rachel. "Here you go, headache medicine. And you have a water bottle. ... You do know how pills work, right? Some people don't!"

Rachel stared at the pills. "... Why are they purple?"

Yuffie blinked. "I... don't know? I don't know how they decide what pills look like, but headache medicine is always purple." A short pause while Rachel continued staring at the pills. "... Or, I guess I should say, _around here_. I guess that's not how it works where you're from, huh?"

Rachel simply stared at the pills with her eyes widened, not really acknowledging Yuffie's question. Looking closely at the purple gelcaps, Rachel could see that they even seemed to have little stars and moons suspended in them, reminding her of Potions and giving her a feeling of nervousness that was clearly evident on her face, as Yuffie could clearly make it out.

"Wow, you really aren't from around here, are you?" Yuffie remarked, a tone of sudden understanding in her voice. In Rachel's face, Yuffie could see a fair amount of fear, and a lack of much hope to speak of. Had the severe culture shock broken her? Yuffie found herself unable to tell, although she could now tell why Rachel had reacted the way she did.

"The pills are totally fine, I promise."

Rachel moved over to where her water bottle was, sitting down on the bed, and then after a moment of hesitation, quickly swallowed the pills, and washed them down, seemingly trying to down the medication without thinking too hard about it. Yuffie didn't find it within herself to blame her, considering the circumstances.

Slowly, carefully, she took a place next to Rachel on the bed, looking across at her. "I don't mean to pry, but I'm kinda curious, what was your world like?" She asked, hoping to not upset her further. "I mean, to be honest, most people don't take this as badly as you are..."

Rachel took a moment to stare Yuffie down, as her eyes flickered back and forth in their sockets, as Rachel thought about the question. Her lips didn't close all the way, and were left hanging open, as Rachel tried to think. "I... I don't know what to say..."

Yuffie decided to try and help her along. "I'm assuming it was different to this one?"

Rachel noticed the opening Yuffie had given her, and took it without thinking. "Yeah, um, yes, I mean... " She rambled, before taking another pause. "Nothing feels real, anymore, all of this, it's just not right..." She managed to utter, her voice quivering. Yuffie gently laid a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

Instead of looking towards Yuffie, as one might do when someone were to lay a hand upon the shoulder, Rachel instead suddenly snapped her eyes shut, as if she was forcing herself not to look, to spare herself from something. Rachel's eyes snapped shut, and she seemed to become slightly more at ease with where she truly was, and the identity of the girl trying to offer a friendly hand briefly slipped from Rachel's attention. Perhaps because she wasn't constantly being forced to acknowledge it this way.

"Trying to describe my world is... difficult. Like asking a fish to describe water." _Also,_ Rachel didn't say, _it had fiction starring you, and I still don't know how the hell that works._ "It was definitely very different, though. It didn't have magical gun-swords — or magic at all, actually — and it _definitely_ didn't have monsters of... pure elemental darkness or whatever, crawling out of the shadows to eat my face. Or not literal monsters, anyway."

Yuffie raised her eyebrows. "No magic? That's surprising. If there's nothing magical in your world, where's your extra aether coming from?"

"My what —?" Something clicked in the back of Rachel's mind and she suddenly remembered something from the dream she had had. _They inconveniently failed to explain __**what**_ _they did to save me... _

_We wouldn't be able to tell Yuffie about it anyway_, Riley pointed out. _They also said it broke a lot of rules._

_Yes, I do remember the dream now. Wait, how do __**you**_ _remember that? You weren't there!_

_What?! No, __**you**_ _were missing —_

_No, I was definitely — _

"Um." Yuffie interrupted the silent argument. "You okay?"

"I..." _need to compare notes with myself_, Rachel briefly considered actually saying out loud. "... don't know what aether is."

"Oh! Well, aether is the source of magic... umm, I forget the details, it's vital for life, but it's also created by life, and the little bit that leaks off is what people use to cast magic. And _you_..." Yuffie paused. "... are _not_ going to die of this —"

"What?!" Yuffie's carefully-chosen words did exactly the opposite of calming Rachel down.

"Um!" Yuffie exclaimed, startled. "What I mean is, well — okay, so living things need aether to live, like I said. But _normally_, and I'm saying that because we already used magic to fix this, but _normally_, your body has an issue where aether just sort of... falls out like it isn't there." Yuffie explained, her voice taking on a more grim note. "You were leaking."

_Leaking...?_ Rachel slowly turned her head towards her hands and stared at them in horror. Not knowing what an aether leakage looked like, her mind filled with images of a glowing white substance flowing out of her wrists and floating away like blood in the water.

_That is... a __**really**_ _morbid choice of image_, Riley thought.

_Fitting, though... It sounds like this would have killed me just as surely as blood loss, if not for..._ "But you said I had... _extra_ aether?"

Yuffie nodded. "So, before we fixed the leakage, we found you on the beach. You were a bit beaten up and shaken, which is pretty normal for the circumstances, unfortunately. But what _wasn't_ normal was your aether — it was fluctuating weirdly. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but it turned out your aether was draining away, but then suddenly getting refilled every time it almost reached dangerous levels. We still don't know _where_ the extra aether comes from, though..." Yuffie looked at Rachel hopefully. "Do you have any idea?"

"No, it's a mystery to me, too..." Rachel replied. _It's not even a lie. They forgot to tell me, so it really is a mystery. Add that to the list, I suppose._

"That's too bad," Yuffie said, sounding disappointed. "But I guess that crosses a few possibilities off the list. Anyway, the mysterious aether source gave us time to figure out a spell to stop the leakage, which will be _really_ useful if we run into anyone else with that problem. And your aether being sealed up properly will take the pressure off whatever the mysterious aether source is."

_That's good... I wouldn't want to suddenly find out the hard way that it was only going to last so long._ "So... I'm fine now?"

"Should be, yeah, as long as —" Whatever Yuffie had been about to say was interrupted as the radio-looking device emitted three short bursts of static. "Ah, they finally got back to me. What do you think, Leon or Aerith? Or it could be Merlin directly, but he's not good with tech..." Rachel just stared at Yuffie, her brain doing kickflips in her skull. "Yeah, I suppose you wouldn't know. I think it's Leon, though."

Yuffie took the device off her belt and held it to her ear. "Hey there, who am I speaking with?"

"_This is Aerith, Yuffie._"

Yuffie snapped her fingers. "Darn. I was sure it'd be Leon."

"_I can get back to the medical tent and let you wait for Leon to respond, if you want...?_"

"Maybe next time," Yuffie said, and Rachel honestly couldn't tell whether she was joking or not. "Anyhow, just wanted to let y'all know that our guest is awake and not panicking and probably wants that shackle off as fast as we can manage, so grab Merlin for me, will ya?"

"_Will do. Did you go through the letter with her, as I asked?_"

"Nah, I was just getting to that."

"_Well, don't forget._"

"I'm literally talking to you about it right now, how likely am I to forget something that quickly?" Yuffie exclaimed, as her hand not holding the radio curled into a fist, and planted itself on her hip.

"_... Like I said, don't forget._"

Yuffie growled and shoved the radio back into its container. "... Anyway, the letter." She picked it up off the dresser and skimmed through it. "Oh, yeah, did we spell your name right? We only heard Sora say it over the radio... Oh, but you don't know who Sora is, do you?"

_Keyblade Jesus? ... Yes, Riley, I do know better than to actually __**say**_ _that._ "Um..."

"But never mind that for now," Yuffie said, not even listening for a response. "We're sorry about the chain and will take it off as soon as we can, we already went over that... this is Traverse Town, your world fell to darkness —"

At this, Rachel found herself irritated, and decided to interject. "What does that _mean_?" Rachel asked. "You keep saying that like it's a common phrase, but I don't have any idea what you're talking about!"

Yuffie frowned. "Well, do you remember a bunch of weird creatures that looked like they were made of solid shadow popping up suddenly?" Rachel nodded her head in acknowledgment. "That'd be the darkness. They attacked your world, it fell."

Rachel stared at Yuffie, incredulous. "That... explains almost nothing. Why were they _there_? What did they _do_? Why did the planet break apart into tiny pieces?"

"Ahh..." Yuffie stammered, appearing to possibly be thrown for a loop. "Well, uh... the Heartless — that's the creatures — they opened the world's Keyhole and..." She frowned. "... did _something_ to its heart? I don't think anyone explained that part to me, actually. But once the Heartless find the heart, the world falls to darkness."

Rachel boggled at this. _That's..._

_... essentially no information_, Riley finished.

_Is this just... something nobody knows?! _Rachel exclaimed with irritation.

_To be fair, doing science on this would be __**super**_ _unethical, _Riley answered, _and even then, the few times it did happen, it didn't seem to uncover that much... _Riley trailed off, and Rachel waited a brief moment for them to start talking to her again.

"You okay?" Yuffie interrupted, moving her face directly "You seem to be spacing out a bit..."

"I'm..." Rachel gesticulated inarticulately for a few seconds, waving her hands around in a vaguely circular manner. "... Let's move on."

"Mm. Okay. So..." Yuffie paused, scratching the back of her head. "We don't really know much, and we don't have any idea why, but _apparently_, a bunch of rockets of some kind ended up flying into the area your world is located in, and some of them converged on your world, and they somehow released payloads of darkness down onto your world, and things just went from there..."

Once again, Rachel felt a flare of white-hot fury, but this time she was expecting it. _Riley... I don't think that rage was me._

_Well it certainly wasn't... oh, __**balls**__._

_What!?_

_I need to —_

_... Riley?!_

But there was no response.

_You— you can't just think some cryptic sentence fragments and vanish, what the hell!? ... Also, how did you even do that?! _Rachel thought to herself, and only herself, considering that the friendly voice in her head had left her. She then turned back to Yuffie, who was just staying where she was, giving Rachel a strange look.

"Are you okay?"

Rachel failed to suppress a hard shudder. "Rockets? Somebody fired darkness-loaded rockets at my world?" she asked, her voice quivering.

Yuffie nodded her head. "That's what it looks like." She turned towards the still shuddering Rachel, who was very clearly not taking things well.

"All those people... So many people..."

Yuffie felt a twinge of sympathy. "I know, it... It can hit hard, sometimes..." Yuffie found her own head drooping a little before it perked back up again. "Hey, all is not lost! We did have survivors coming in, earlier!"

That got Rachel to turn her head. "Oh, really?" She said, with her voice sounding dry.

"Yeah! Quite a lot, too..." Yuffie spoke, tailing off. "...Say, about your world, Rachel... How many people lived there? Like, what kind of population are we talking about? Hundreds of people? Thousands of people? Hundreds of thousands of people?"

Rachel looked up, tears nearly forming in her eyes. "Seven billion, Yuffie."

Yuffie froze solid. "...What?" She whispered, ever so quietly.

Rachel drew in a breath, and simply repeated herself. "Seven billion, Yuffie. Or maybe closer to eight by now, I don't remember the projections." She reached for her pocket reflexively before remembering that she _still_ didn't have her phone.

"Is that... no, you wouldn't know." Yuffie ran her hands through her hair. "But it _must_ be, surely," she whispered, "otherwise survivors from your branch would be the overwhelming majority..."

Rachel felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "... What do you mean by... any of that?"

"... Your world wasn't the only one attacked. If... if all of them were as populated as yours..." Yuffie thought out loud, as she now felt her own mind start to quiver.

_Destroying __**one**_ _world is already an atrocity! How could someone do __**more**__?_ Rachel thought. "How many?"

"We didn't have, like, official census data or anything," Yuffie admitted, "but... from the star charts, it looked like about two thousand."

_Two thousand... that's... __**trillions**_ _of people... A minute ago, I didn't know trillions of people even __**existed**__, and now they're all dead?!_ "... The human mind is not equipped to handle numbers this _fucking huge_!" she muttered.

Yuffie looked down, dazed. "Part of me wants to tell you to watch your language, but... things just got _literally_ a million times worse than I realized they were. If there's ever a time for an F-bomb, this is it..."

Rachel laughed mirthlessly. "I guess you got the worse of that exchange. My problems only got multiplied by about two thousand." She clenched her fists, and a detached part of her idly noted that as angry as she was, the intrusive flare of white-hot rage was absent. _What did you __**do**__, Riley...?_ "... _Why_ would someone destroy so many worlds?"

"Well, they're not _destroyed_," Yuffie pointed out. "Worlds that have fallen to darkness can come back. I'm... a little unclear as to how that works, though. You'd have to ask Sora, he's the one who did it."

_Right, I distantly remember that... though I have no clue how it worked, I do know that some worlds lost during the first game were back in the second. But..._ "I don't know about the other worlds, but mine didn't exactly sink uneventfully into oblivion. Buildings collapsed... people died." _Even if I couldn't find their bodies..._ "That's not exactly going to magically undo itself just because the world itself is back."

Yuffie sighed. "That is the case, unfortunately... Some people have returned from darkness along with their world, but not all of them, and none who, say, have both their heart and their body... Well, you know..."

"Right," Rachel muttered. _I don't know if that helps to know or not, considering._ "Maybe we should... talk about something else, other than lots of people being dead. Like, _literally_ _anything_ else."

"That's probably a good idea," Yuffie admitted, and looked back at the letter. "The request for assistance thing — we don't want to like, sound demanding or anything; it'd be kind of a jerk move to demand your help right after you recovered from a disaster, right? But — if you're _willing_ to help, we do kinda need every hand we can get, especially if you have useful skills..."

"Yuffie, I'm 16. I don't know what it's like here, but in my world, 16-year-olds are still treated like kids." _Except when we're not, _Rachel bitterly thought, _the distinction being defined entirely at the convenience of the "real" adults around us..._ "I'm okay with helping, but no, I don't have any particular skills..."

Yuffie frowned. "I'm sure you have _something_. Didn't you have, like, plans for your adult life?" She asked, tilting her head towards her shoulder. "You had to be preparing for something."

Rachel scoffed bitterly. "I _had_ plans, yes. I was _gonna_ go into medicine. That was derailed a bit when my parents decided I should be homeless."

"... They _what_?" Yuffie exclaimed, her head jolting back upright.

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly the result I was hoping for when I told 'em I'm a girl," Rachel said, bittering bitterly.

Yuffie seemed too stuck between being shocked and appalled at Rachel's parents' behavior and being confused at the idea that someone might not immediately know Rachel was a girl to coherently form a sentence about either thing.

"And you don't have any idea... Okay, short version, when I was born, the doctors said I was a boy, but... it was just _wrong_. It took ages for me to figure that out, and when I explained this to my parents, they got very mad because of... well, reasons that are ultimately nothing but self-perpetuating nonsense. So they changed all the locks. The funniest part was when my dad said 'I have no son'. No, you don't, that's literally the point I was making! Even at the time, I thought that was hilarious."

Yuffie's bewilderment didn't fade. "But..." She vocalized after a short while, prompting Rachel to raise an eyebrow. "Wouldn't they have just checked whether you had... you know... The thing, or the other thing?"

Rachel winced. "Ugh, don't remind me about... that is, what's between my legs isn't the data being discussed here. Um..." Rachel cast about for a better explanation, knowing that Yuffie would definitely not make the leap from just that. "Okay, thought experiment. Imagine that your body vanished, but _you_ stuck around, floating as an invisible formless nothing, but still self-aware. You'd still be a girl, right?"

Yuffie thought about that a moment. "I suppose I would, yeah," she said, nodding.

"Right, cause gender isn't stored in the... pants, it's in the... invisible formless nothing. Or whatever real thing is equivalent to that metaphor." Rachel waved her hand around. "I want to say that's the brain, but given recent revelations, I'm a lot less sure... Anyway, my invisible formless nothing knew I was a girl, despite what people might be inclined to infer from my body."

Yuffie looked lost in thought. "Does that happen _often_, in your world?"

Rachel shrugged. "I mean... define 'often'. In a world of seven billion, a one-in-a-thousand occurrence is still _seven million_ people. And we're a bit more than that... it was hard to get reliable numbers, so people's estimates could vary pretty widely, but the one I believe is one in fifty." _Not to mention however many cis people wouldn't have bothered with gender if they hadn't been assigned one at birth... For obvious reasons, we have basically no idea how big __**that**_ _category is._

"That would be a fair number of people..." Yuffie mused. "Even for a normal-sized world, actually. But in a world the size of yours... I can see why your world needs stuff like that she/her pin you've got on your bag. Oh, speaking of, is it normal in your world to include that kind of stuff with your signature? Aerith thought it was, especially considering we don't have any pins of our own, but I wondered if maybe you were used to doing that some other way."

Rachel smiled weakly. "I _wish_ it was normal... It _should_ be normal if you ask me. But no, most people from my world don't even ask people's pronouns, much less tell their own unprompted. It's pretty much just people like me that do that."

Yuffie thought about that for a moment. "Well, do you have any more of those pins?"

"I... have a they/them pin?" Rachel responded, wondering where Yuffie was going with this.

"What, like for someone with multiple personalities?"

"That's..." Rachel started to say, as '... not the preferred nomenclature' briefly fought with '... not the use case I had in mind' for the right to be said first, until Rachel told them both off and made them stand in the corner. "... It's literally just for people who use they/them pronouns. Strictly speaking, anyone of any gender can use any pronouns, if they want to. But _usually,_ that's because their invisible formless nothing knows they're not a boy _or_ a girl. Or else they're both, or something in between."

Yuffie hmm'd in acknowledgment. "Well, I've got a sudden urge to change some societal norms, and I figured, if people saw the great ninja Yuffie wearing a pronoun pin... right?"

Rachel stifled a giggle. "It's a nice thought, but it would work better if pronoun pins were widely available, rather than there being two in the entire world, both of which belong to me." Hearing this, Yuffie got a thoughtful look on her face, which Rachel failed to notice. "And speaking of things that belong to me... do you know where I left my bag? Because... I don't."

Yuffie waved her hand. "Oh, you dropped that in the Second District. It should be just in the other room, I can get it for you."

"Okay, but first — I also had a phone? Normally I carry it in my pocket, but it's not there now... actually, I don't think I've seen it since my world... fell."

Yuffie leaned forward, looking at Rachel's pockets. "... phone?" she asked, nonplussed. "How would you carry around an entire phone in your pockets?"

"Uh..." Rachel suddenly realized the implication of Yuffie using a two-way radio to communicate with the rest of the Committee. _They... don't have cell phones... Never mind gender, how do I explain __**that**__?_ "It's a little oblong device, black and kinda glossy, one side is a screen you might or might not have figured out how to operate?"

"That thing's a _phone_?" Yuffie exclaimed, shocked. "But there aren't enough buttons... how do you _dial_ it?"

"I'm... not sure I could _explain_, not with just words," Rachel said slowly, "but... if you brought it back to me, I could _show_ you..."

Yuffie jumped to her feet. "Well, I need to report back to Aerith regardless, so I'll go and grab it for you! Until then, there's some snacks and stuff there for you, so... Catch you later!"

Rachel decided not to think too hard about that last remark, and simply lay on the bed, clasping her hands over her torso, and staring up at the ceiling. After Yuffie had left, she started to think to herself.

_I just had a conversation with someone who shouldn't exist, about other things that shouldn't exist... I think I need to lie down for a bit..._

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "things that almost happened"...**_

"Maybe we could lock the doors?" Aerith said.

Leon and Yuffie boggled at —

"No, that won't work, the locks are on the inside," Leon said. "She'd just unlock them."


	6. Welcome to the Beyond (Part Two)

CO-AUTHOR'S NOTE: I apologize for the seemingly unoriginal title, but I couldn't think of anything better, considering this is basically just an extension of the last chapter, anyway.

ATUHOR'S NOSE: OH yeah I keep forgetting, I wanted to get this down somewhere and I don't have anything more interesting to say on this chapter, so, accuracy disclaimer or whatever — Rachel&'s experience of plurality is based loosely on a: our (me and my headmates') experience of plurality, _plus_ b: how we imagine Kingdom Hearts nonsense might affect that specific experience, _plus_ c: what we (me and James) think makes an interesting plot. Not every system works the same way as us, and Kingdom Hearts nonsense nor fanfic plots are _definitely_ not in force in reality, so in short, please don't use this fanfiction as your entire reference guide when dealing with real-world systems.

... And that's a phrase I imagine doesn't get said much. I would hope I don't _really need_ to say it, but I'm saying it anyway.

* * *

... _BEEP BEEP._

Leon winced. "Can you shut that thing up, Cid?"

"To the best of my knowledge... nope."

"You didn't even look at the thing."

"I've _been_ looking at it!" Cid exclaimed. "It's locked."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "Should we get Sora?"

"_Password_ locked," Cid clarified, sounding annoyed. "Sora couldn't Keyblade his way into the Radiant Garden computer, he can't Keyblade into this one. Anyway, I don't think our guest would appreciate us breakin' her security like that even if we could."

For a while now, Cid had been studying the device that Leon had brought in, at his request. Leon had found it after it fell out of the pocket of the girl he now knew to be named Rachel, back when they had recovered her body from the beach. Leon had simply brought it to Cid to be examined since he figured that unfamiliar technology was better handled by Cid rather than himself.

Leon had just arrived, strolling into Cid's current domain as if he were welcome, and was waiting for Cid to be done with what he assumed, in his infinite wisdom, to be some sort of momentary distraction.

"Still, I don't trust this device," Leon said, picking it up and poking at it. "I have no idea what it's for or what it can do."

"Or how to operate it," Cid observed.

"Or how to... hey!"

Cid smirked, and turned towards the device Leon had brought in. A rectangular device, glossy at the front, Cid had originally been baffled. It had taken him longer than he would have liked to admit to figure out how to turn the screen on, via the button on the back.

When the screen had turned on, Cid had done the next logical step of figuring out how to operate the device and had looked for further buttons beyond the one that toggled the screen on and off, and had only found more buttons on the side that didn't seem to do anything when he'd brushed his fingers against the screen by accident, and the screen had reacted in a strange way. After a few more touches, Cid had realized that the input device was the screen itself.

_What the heck?! _He'd suddenly thought. _The screen... It's responding to being touched?_

Once he had figured this out, Cid actually just stopped, put the device down very gently, and just stared at it, trying to think. He gently lifted the device again, turned the screen on, and tried touching the screen again. And again. Touching the screen quickly seemed to turn the device on and off, but not always. After a bit more experimentation, Cid noticed that the screen responded differently depending on how he touched it, and as he dragged his finger across the screen, different elements on the screen moved depending on how he dragged his finger.

_What kind of future alien technology is this...? _He'd wondered, just simply staring at the device. _How'd you build the inputs into the dang screen, like this?_

Cid then figured out that swiping his finger across the empty space on the screen, it brought a prompt for him to "Draw pattern to unlock", which Cid had interpreted to be a sort of password system. He tried drawing different patterns on the screen, but he wasn't able to open anything. _Just as well, _he had thought to himself. _I really shouldn't be tryin' to break in, if this is what I think it is. _He did notice, however, that drawing the wrong pattern too many times made the device stop responding entirely to any input for half a minute. Cid assumed this to be a security measure.

Despite the security on the device, Cid decided he was going to see what he could figure out in regards to the rest of the device. When he brought up the pattern prompt, he noticed a shape on the screen with the text "Emergency Call" on it. _Is this their idea of a button, then? _He had wondered. Upon pressing the button, a keypad emerged and allowed him to input a number, but Cid found that whatever numbers he randomly typed in, the device simply displayed a prompt saying that the number was not an emergency number. There was also another "button" labeled Medical Info, but Cid decided to leave it alone.

Cid also uncovered that from swiping down from near the top of the device's screen, it brought down a bunch more options, and he could bring up more icons from off the screen by swiping up from the bottom. Most of these all brought up the pattern prompt, but Cid was able to turn on what was an insanely bright flashlight, which surprised him a little bit. _But I suppose it makes sense if she carries this thing around all the time. Why not build in a flashlight? Or the dang kitchen sink, while you're at it..._

In addition to all this, Cid found that after enough time had passed, the device let out a noise, seemingly just to indicate that time had indeed passed, for its own sake. Cid had found this to be a nuisance, but he did notice that this also caused a small notification to appear on the screen, right in the middle.

"All in all," Cid would later say to Leon, "I still don't know exactly what that thing is. I'm pretty sure it's something she carries around with her all the time, and it's probably multi-functional in some way, judging by all the different things it can apparently do. The darn thing even has a flashlight in it, Leon."

"I see," Leon muttered noncommittally as he continued to fiddle with the device to no effect. _But how does someone even come up with the idea of a device like this?_

"In fact, when I say password locked, well... It's not any typical kind of password I've seen. It's more 'pattern locked' than anything."

Leon paused. "Pattern locked? How so?"

Noticing that Leon was fiddling with the device, Cid quickly moved over towards him. "Be careful with that," He warned. "I don't know what it is, but I think it's probably as fragile as Yuffie's ego."

Leon immediately cradled the device in both his hands, holding it over the table so it wouldn't fall all the way to the ground, much like he'd carry a newborn baby with brittle-bone disease. "How come it's so fragile, then?" He asked.

Cid placed a hand on the table and leaned on it slightly. "Well, they've somehow managed to make the screen itself the input device." Leon's eyes widened at this, and he turned his head to look at Cid, who spoke up before Leon could ask any questions. "No idea how, but you touch the screen, and the device responds to it." Cid took the device from Leon and turned the screen on. "You see, there's this button on the back that switches it on, and then once you touch the screen..." Cid trailed off, as he swept his fingers across the screen, causing numerous icons to appear at the top and bottom of the screen.

"Huh." Out of curiosity, Leon tapped at one of the icons, but nothing happened. He tapped it a few more times. "Uh..."

"Yeah," Cid said, having gone back to whatever he was doing, "it's all pattern locked, so I don't know what any of that stuff is either."

"It's not doing _anything_," Leon said.

"What?! Gimme that." Cid grabbed the phone out of Leon's gloved hands and swiped at its screen again. "Seems fine to me — or the same as it was before, at least."

"That's weird... Why does it work for you and not me?"

"Beats me," Cid said, putting the device back down on his desk. "I still don't know how the thing works _at all_. I've been considering having Tron scan it, but I don't wanna send it off to another world without at least its owner's permission." A brief pause as he pushed some buttons on his computer. "Speaking of the owner, how is she after yesterday's shenanigans?"

"Awake and relatively cooperative," called a voice from the door.

"Yuffie," Leon said in acknowledgment. "You're here. And not watching Merlin's guest room." The unstated _did you seriously leave her unattended_ was louder than the words Leon said out loud.

"Don't be silly," she retorted, "I said she's being cooperative, right? So I brought her with me! Say hi, Rachel!"

* * *

**Earlier...**

Yuffie glanced back into Merlin's guest room, where Rachel was lying down. _She seems to be holding together fine... better than I would in her place. Seven billion people... I didn't know worlds could even __**get**_ _that populated._ Since she seemed to be asleep, Yuffie opted to quietly drop her backpack inside the door and head off to grab Merlin. She turned around and —

"I hear our guest is finally awake?"

"Gah!" Yuffie jumped about a mile, flailing her limbs wildly. "Merlin, I _told_ you to quit doing that!"

"I've absolutely no idea what you're referring to," the wizard said, not making eye contact. "But our guest?"

"Right, right. She _was_ awake, but now she seems to be taking a nap. She was better, though. No panicking or anything like that. Given this... d'you think we could dispel the chain now?"

Merlin gave Yuffie a questioning look. "And are you _quite_ sure that's a good idea?"

"Uh, _yeah_!" Yuffie said, giving Merlin a look like she thought he was out of his mind. "Weren't you the one that pointed out that this was _totally_ still imprisoning her, even though we didn't mean it that way? And anyway, I need to take her to Cid's lab to get her phone back — yeah, that thing's a _phone_, somehow, it's so wild! It's literally got two buttons, I don't know how that works but she said she'd show me, and — "

Merlin held up a hand to stop her. "All right, all right. And you'll take responsibility?"

"Pff, she'll be _fine_, don't be so dramatic!" A brief pause. Merlin just stared at Yuffie expectantly. "That was a 'yes', Merlin! I'll take responsibility or whatever."

"Just making sure you actually said it this time," he said, waving his wand. "And it's done. And speaking of our guest, did she have anything enlightening to say about her odd aether?"

"Not a thing," Yuffie replied, disappointed. "She doesn't even know what aether _is_!

"...I beg your pardon? She doesn't know what aether is?" Merlin asked, a perplexed look resting upon his face. "But then, if she has no idea what aether is, how come she has the mysterious source of aether keeping her topped off?" He inquired, addressing Yuffie as if she were some sort of learned scholar.

"Uhm... I dunno..." Yuffie answered, dashing Merlin's hopes of having his curiosity sated. "She said it was a mystery to her, too, Merlin. Actually, there seems to be a lot she doesn't know. I don't think she understands what it means for a world to fall to darkness."

"Well that's rather more understandable," Merlin said. "That would be an entirely novel concept to her. But she got that mysterious aether source _somewhere_, so it's strange that she has no idea what it is..."

Yuffie suddenly remembered something else that Rachel had said. "It gets weirder than that, Merlin!" She suddenly exclaimed from seemingly out of nowhere. "She said that her world doesn't have magic, as in, no magic of any kind. She didn't seem to understand what darkness was when I tried to explain what it meant for a world to fall."

"No magic, no knowledge of darkness... what kind of world does she live in?"

"I asked her that, but..." Yuffie shrugged. "She couldn't explain much. She tried, but she said it was like asking a fish to explain water."

"...Like asking a fish to describe water, she said?" Merlin asked, with a worried tone, as he put his hand to his chin. "Well, then... Let's hope we're not in over our heads..."

* * *

Back in the guest room, Rachel opened one eye as the chain vanished. When she realized what she was seeing, she sat up, stared at her arm a moment, then rotated her shoulder a few times. _Oh, that is definitely better. ... And still nothing from Riley... This is so unsettling..._

She flopped back on the bed for a moment, trying to get comfortable, before realizing that she was definitely far too wired to sleep even a little bit longer.

_Okay. No more sleep, then. In that case, I need..._ She glanced at the bathroom. _... __**everything**_ _in that room. Ugh._

A vaguely-defined amount of time later she emerged from the bathroom, distinctly both cleaner and more disgruntled. _Okay. What next. Immediately. Food? Yes, more food._ She headed back to the dresser and grabbed the first thing she saw, one of the energy bars. _... Epic Strawberry Extreme flavor?_ Not really caring how it tasted, she unwrapped it and took a bite.

It was, unmistakably, Epic Strawberry Extreme flavor. Somehow, she felt that calling it just "strawberry", or even "Extreme Epic Strawberry", would have been less correct.

_... That's __**weird**__._

She finished that energy bar, then the next one ("Ultimate Kiwi Blast", labeled as accurately as the last), and finally decided she was done for now, though she stashed two more in her pockets just in case.

Rachel turned to the exit door and took a deep breath. _Guess I gotta go... talk to Yuffie and everyone again. ... Be nice if I could have some moral support, here!_

She waited for several seconds, sitting on the side of the bed, but there was still no response.

_... Dang it, Riley. Where did you go? How does there even __**exist**_ _a place in my own head that I don't have access to? _Rachel took a breath and turned her head towards the door. _Ah, hell. Here goes..._

With no answers or help incoming, Rachel steeled herself and, alone this time, approached the door, and —

_Wait... Someone's talking?_

"... but no, they haven't gotten into any more fistfights since then." An older male voice. _...Is that really... Merlin?_

"Well, good!" Yuffie responded. "If they didn't listen to Aerith, I might have to go down there and... well, probably not pound 'em, that'd be escalating, but like... _something_!"

"... Quite. Well, things could be much worse. With thousands of people stuck together like this, I'm honestly surprised we haven't had _more_ fistfights."

_... thousands?_ Something clicked in the back of Rachel's mind, and she thought back to what Yuffie had said earlier. _If there are two thousand worlds, and even just a few survivors from __**every**_ _world, that adds up pretty fast..._

"Yeah, Aerith is doing a good job keeping people calm, huh? Her mom-voice is a thing of wonder and mystery."

"Actually, I'm quite sure she's simply —"

"_Wonnnnder and mysssssstery._"

"... Well, on a different subject, has Sora reported back yet?"

_Sora?!_

"No, not yet. I mean, he's checked in to say he's on his way back, and to remind us to keep an eye on Rachel, but he hasn't like, explained stuff."

Rachel drew in a breath and had to suppress a shudder. Her mind started racing a mile-a-minute, and her head started to quickly piece together what she could infer. _They want to keep an eye on me?! There are thousands of survivors, and they're keeping an eye on __**me**__?! Why!? What's so important about me?!_

"Hm. Well, I'm sure he'll explain when he gets here."

_**Sora**__, of all people, wants me watched, and he's not explaining why? _Rachel thought. _There aren't a lot of possible __**good**_ _explanations for that..._

"Yeah, and in the meantime, we should —"

Hastily, Rachel opened the door and leaned forward, intending just to poke her head into the hallway, but accidentally overbalanced, flinging the door wide and falling flat on the ground.

"Uh, hey there Rachel," Yuffie said. "I see you're awake now."

"... _ow_." _Well, at least they're not talking about that anymore. I just need to pratfall every time they try to discuss what to do with me and they'll never get around to actually doing it. Yes, that's a brilliant and not-terrible idea._

Yuffie quickly rushed over and helped Rachel to her feet. "So, uh... This is Merlin. I think I mentioned him once or twice earlier? He's the resident magician here in Traverse Town, and he actually used to live right here in this very grotto."

Rachel looked around. "This is a hallway?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "The hallway is _in_ the grotto, Rachel, try to keep up!"

"Right," Rachel said, already starting to feel exhausted from Yuffie's energy. "So, uh... not to be a one-track mind, here, but I really would like to have my phone back."

"Oh, right!" Yuffie said. "Cid's lab is..." She traced out a path in the air. "... well, I'm going to have to escort you there anyway, so I'll just do that."

"Kids these days and their fancy technology," Merlin grumbled. "In my day we read _books_ for fun."

_So do I_, Rachel thought but neglected to speak aloud, _but I keep them on my phone._ She shook her head. "Um, yeah, let's get going, Y... Yuffie..." She stammered, still not used to addressing someone who shouldn't really exist.

"Ah, you figured my name out," Yuffie quipped, grabbing Rachel by the wrist. "Time to go, Rachel!"

Yuffie promptly tugged on Rachel's hand, guiding her down the hallway and through the rest of the grotto, past most of Merlin's clutter, and eventually towards a reasonably big door.

"Well, it's good that he finally got rid of the gigantic hole in the wall, and fixed this up," Yuffie remarked, opening the door for Rachel to pass through. "After you."

Rachel stepped through the open door.

* * *

As Rachel stepped through the door, her head hanging low, she found herself stepping down some steps, before coming to a massive lake. Lifting her head up, Rachel saw that not only was she standing before a huge, vast lake, but that the lake was enclosed within a massive cavern.

The water, and the cavern walls, all seemed to radiate this blue-green color, and the water flowed and shimmered like liquid crystal. Rachel had never seen anything like this before, at least, not in real life. Rachel found her head turning towards the sky, where she saw that the entire cavern wasn't enclosed with a naturally-forming roof overhead, but it was, in fact, open-air, the area she was in seemingly contained in a fissure in the above-ground. Rachel found herself staring wordlessly into the night sky.

Rachel found herself at a total loss for words. _This really is another world, isn't it...? _She thought to herself. _...This still feels so unreal..._

Yuffie quickly approached from behind Rachel. "You've not seen anything like this before, huh?" She noted. "...You're just staring, Rachel. Your world really wasn't like this, was it?"

"It's..." Rachel trailed off. "... It _had_ places like this, but I never went to them. Never got a chance." Rachel's mouth moved and her voice spoke on her behalf, acting on some sort of auto-pilot.

"Well, here's your chance, right now!" Yuffie quipped, before strolling on ahead of Rachel. "Are you gonna keep sightseeing for a while, or are we gonna get moving?"

"O-Oh yeah!" Rachel stammered, quickly moving up to meet Yuffie, before quickly stopping when she actually saw the path ahead. "...Uh..."

The path in question consisted entirely of some floating stones, forming literal stepping-stones, in the water. No bridge of any sort, just stepping-stones, reasonably sized with a decent amount of space between them.

Rachel watched in disbelief as Yuffie jumped from stone to stone effortlessly, leaping the distance between them the way a third-grader might play hopscotch, and making it surprisingly high into the air, seemingly without any intent towards height as opposed to distance. When Yuffie reached the end, she turned around, frowning as soon as she realized Rachel wasn't following. "...Something wrong?"

"I... **cannot** do that," Rachel said bluntly.

"Well, how are you gonna get over here?"

"I don't know, is there a _boat_ in here somewhere?" Rachel looked around, not immediately seeing any such craft around anywhere. "... Failing that, I could swim, but jumping like that is just not a thing that's possible for me to do."

Yuffie planted her fists on her hips and tilted her head towards her shoulder. "I don't recall it giving any of us any trouble..."

"Yuffie, you just casually broke our high jump world record four times. I am not..." Rachel looked at the stones. "I mean, maybe if I got a running start I could make the distance from one stone to the next, but if it's slippery I could well fall and break my neck. No." She paused, frowning as a thought occurred to her. "Gravity around here is still 9.8 meters per second squared, right?" She asked, quoting a statistic she'd memorized from a night spent alone with a bad cold, a supply of comfort food, and an irresponsible number of browser tabs open on her laptop.

Yuffie just looked confused. "What the heck's a square second?"

Rachel shook her head. "Wrong person to ask, I suppose... Well. I'm out of other ideas." She patted her pockets, found only the energy bars she'd stashed earlier, and transferred them to her backpack. "I'm gonna have to swim it."

"What, really?" Yuffie asked, jumping back across the stones. "Like... swim _on purpose_?"

"I happen to _like_ swimming," Rachel said. "... Though admittedly I don't usually do it in my regular clothes." _Do I want to deal with soaked denim, or embarrassment? ... Definitely the soaked denim._ "Well, since you're here, can you carry this?" she said, handing her backpack back to Yuffie.

"Uhh? I can, but..." Yuffie stared in disbelief as Rachel walked over to the edge of the water. "Are you seriously going to just swim across?!"

"Yes?" Rachel responded. "Unless you have a better idea."

"I do, actually," Yuffie said, a thoughtful tone in her voice as she slung Rachel's backpack over her shoulders.

"Really? What did you — _eep!_" Rachel's question was cut off at the same time it was answered, as Yuffie scooped her up in a bridal carry and hopped back across the lake, moving only marginally slower than she had been when she was unburdened.

Within seconds, they were both on the far side, and Yuffie gently set Rachel back down on her feet. "There, easy." She took a few steps toward the exit before belatedly noticing that Rachel wasn't following. "... You all right?"

"Um, yeah, fine!" Rachel said hurriedly, face flushed. _Holy __**crap**_ _she's strong... that was nearly too much for my gay little heart... _Something in the back of her mind noted that Yuffie didn't seem to be putting on her usual ego display — no cocky smile, no hands on hips, just a mildly concerned expression. _... Was that really nothing to her? Is that just totally normal around here?_

"Well don't just stand there," Yuffie said, grabbing Rachel's wrist again, "let's go already!" Yuffie tugged on Rachel's wrist, and started to lead her towards their destination. As they left the cavern, Yuffie chimed in with something Rachel _really_ didn't expect...

"Say, I have a hypothetical question for you..."

* * *

The girl in question had a bewildered and slightly desperate look on her face, which was probably related to the death-grip Yuffie had on her wrist. "H- hi..." Rachel obeyed Yuffie's command, waving her hand in an extremely timid manner, her gaze focused more on the room they were in than the people within it.

"Say, Rachel," Yuffie said, turning her head "you should tell Leon what you told me, about the moon scenario."

"Are you actually going to drag everyone you meet into that ridiculous debate?" Leon asked, unimpressed.

"It's an important icebreaker!" Yuffie said.

"The entire scenario is absurd!" Leon shot back. Rachel stepped back a little bit, clearly thrown for a loop.

"Yeah, obviously only the cavemen's shamans would have the spiritual know-how to survive a haunting," Cid said offhandedly.

The room went dead silent as everyone slowly turned to face Cid in disbelief. The room remained dead silent as Cid, still facing the computer, completely failed to notice this. Rachel silently wondered where everything in her life went wrong.

"Uh, hey," Rachel spoke up, albeit quietly, to break the interminable silence, "you... have my phone. Can I get that back now?"

"Right, right," Cid said, standing up to hand the device back. He hadn't reached it when he suddenly stopped. "Wait, your _phone_?"

Noting how nervous Rachel was, Yuffie kindly volunteered herself to speak on her behalf. "Yeah, that's apparently what it is." Both Cid and Leon turned their heads to look at each other, before opening their mouths as if they were to say something before Yuffie raised a hand. "I've already asked, it's not worth it."

"Eh, if you say so," Cid muttered, picking up the device and returning it to Rachel, who eagerly clasped onto it, giving Cid the impression that the device clearly meant a fair bit to her, as she took it into her hands as if her life depended on it.

If Cid, Leon, and Yuffie had strained their ears to the utmost, they could almost hear her mutter "thank you".

Rachel, grasping the device, walked shakily towards a couch, a fair few steps away from the other people in the room, sat down with a sigh of slight relief and turned the screen on. She quickly unlocked it, darting her finger across its surface, and tapped some icons. After a brief pause, she sighed and shook her head. "...useless without the network, of course..."

Yuffie, hearing this statement and being rather perplexed by it, decided to take a few steps towards where Rachel was sitting. "Erm... You said you could show us how that thing worked, right?"

"Ah, right!" Rachel said, her gaze locked to her device, as she tapped upon its screen some more. "This is... a communications device, at its core. And the network it communicated with was... back home. So most of its functions don't work now. But there's _some_ left..."

She tapped the screen once more, and before Rachel knew what was what, the room was immediately filled with some computer-generated beats, accompanied by what sounded akin to feminine moans, and a voice singing about how girls felt the same way towards each other as boys felt towards them. Rachel was thrown off-balance by this, as she froze up in confusion for an irresponsibly long time, before suddenly realizing that her music player was playing "_Girls Like Girls_" by Hayley Kiyoko.

"_Aaah!_"

The music was cut off suddenly. "I was planning to pick a... different song," Rachel said, blushing furiously, "but it just immediately blared out what I was listening to last... It always does that, and I always forget..." _**Please**_ _nobody immediately ask any awkward questions about being a lesbian..._

"So..." Cid said, "... you got a whole dang jukebox in there or something?"

Rachel's eyes flickered quickly between Cid and her device, not particularly lingering on either. "Mm... functionally, yeah," she said. "I normally stream my music off the internet, but I've saved a few of my favorite songs. And videos that aren't songs. And memes." She paused. "There is a _lot_ of stuff on here."

Yuffie sat down next to Rachel. "Rachel... I have _several_ questions. Isn't just _one_ record like... this big?" she asked, holding her hands out.

Rachel blinked. "Records... like _vinyl_?" she asked, staring at Yuffie in disbelief for a few seconds. "You can't be serious. Surely you at least have..." _Not "CDs", that's a trademark, what's the generic term?_ "..._optical_ _media_ by now."

Leon and Yuffie both looked towards Cid. "Well, we do kind of have that, but even then..." He replied, gesturing with an open palm, facing upwards, towards the device. "Look at how small that thing is!"

"Yeah, an optical disc may be smaller than a vinyl record, but it still wouldn't fit in that tiny device," Leon said, looking at it curiously.

Rachel couldn't really believe what she was hearing. Not only was she surrounded by people who shouldn't exist, for all she knew, but they didn't seem to understand exactly what they were dealing with. "Haven't you ever heard of digitally storing data?"

"Yeah, but not on somethin' that small!" Cid replied. "How do you fit a storage device in there? It's way smaller than any hard drive I've seen!"

Rachel thought about that for a moment. "That's... a good question." She lifted her phone for a moment before a realization struck. "... and I can't look up the answer, because the internet doesn't exist anymore." She sighed. _That is going to get very annoying, very quickly..._ "I know it's different from a magnetic hard drive... something with very small electrical circuits that can be turned on or off, and stay that way without being actively powered..." She scrolled through her phone. "Well, I don't recall the finer details, but the upshot is..."

As Rachel swiped her finger across the screen, willing the device to scroll through the list, Yuffie, who had been looking at the device with interest, suddenly cut off whatever Rachel was going to say. "Hey, woah, woah!" She suddenly said, prompting Rachel to stop, and turn her head slightly towards her. "Did you just... Did I... Did I see what I think I saw?"

Rachel looked back down at her phone. She hadn't tapped anything. "Um... all I did was scroll?" She scrolled up and down again, looking at Yuffie with an expression born of confusion and irritation, as she failed to understand how Yuffie was so taken aback.

"...What?" Yuffie replied, as she turned her head, and saw Rachel's expression. "What, is this... is this _normal_ for you?"

"Is it... really that impressive?" Rachel asked, nonplussed. _If that's the case, I bet the actual functions will __**really**_ _blow her mind._

"Well..." Yuffie started, trying to find words to describe how she felt. "...I've just never seen anything like this before! Cid? Leon? Have you seen anything like this?!"

"I mean..." Cid muttered. "I've seen devices try to put their buttons _on top of_ the screen before. It was always kinda crap, though, not like this." Leon just shrugged.

"What else can it do?" Yuffie asked excitedly.

"Well... I technically already demonstrated the music, but since I'm pretending that that didn't happen," Rachel thought aloud. As Yuffie eagerly watched over her shoulder, she scrolled through her list of songs (as Yuffie excitedly watched over her shoulder), trying to find a song she felt was appropriate. _"Corrupted"? No, trance is probably too niche a genre... "Impact" is decent, but video game music has the same problem... Wh — why do I even __**have**_ _"No one's around to help" downloaded?! I need __**real**_ _music, something properly... representative. _After scrolling for a short while, Rachel came across a song that had what she felt was a deep meaning for both herself and her friends. They'd played it as an anthem to lift their spirits when things looked bleak, many many times.

_**This**__, yes, this will do perfectly._

Rachel tapped on the screen once more, and the song started. An underlying synthesized tone rang out, followed by some notes played from some kind of guitar, followed then by a voice making various "woah" sounds joining in over the top of it soon enough, which itself was heralded and accompanied by some percussion. This continued for a couple dozen or so seconds before Bon Jovi started to relay the story of Tommy and Gina with "Livin' On A Prayer".

As Bon Jovi relayed the story through his vocals, everyone in the room listened in silence, Cid continued to type at his keyboard, ears pricked and listening to the song in the background. Yuffie was headbanging and playing air guitar, which didn't make Yuffie look anywhere near as cool as she thought, since she couldn't tell what was coming up in the song, and was more or less flailing about wildly. Leon was boggling at Yuffie, remarking to himself not only about Yuffie's behavior but also how he found the song to be much better than he was expecting it to be.

Amidst all of this, Rachel thought back to the times she'd listened to this song with her friends... Her friends she might never see again. Completely at odds with the song's optimistic tone, she found herself feeling more melancholy than anything. _They might still be alive... maybe..._

As the song drew to a close, Yuffie finished her 'performance' and looked over at Rachel. "Something wrong? You look... less than okay."

Rachel took a breath. "It's just... I was thinking of my friends from back home," she said, closing the music app and opening up the photo gallery. "They're... probably not okay, are they?"

There was a brief awkward pause, where Cid hung his head slightly lower, and Yuffie awkwardly twiddled her thumbs, before Leon spoke up. "We don't know how your friends are. Normally... most worlds fall to darkness pretty quickly. People who are still alive when a world finally falls usually end up locked in stasis until the world is restored. A handful make it here, and very rarely someone will wake up in other worlds. People do die in a fall, but it's the exception, not the rule." He sighed. "Normally. Some worlds don't fall quickly. Radiant Garden didn't. Yours didn't. The longer it takes a world to fall, the more time there is for people to die."

"I see..." Rachel muttered. "... Y'know, I bet they _are_ alive, then. Jules is a survivor, she wouldn't have let herself die like that. They all are, but Jules especially so."

"That's the spirit!" Yuffie said. "And hey, they might have even made it out here! When we get multiple survivors from the same world, there's a connection between them more often than not." Yuffie explained, leaning over to see what Rachel had opened up out of curiosity, and glimpsing the photo gallery. "Hey, do you have any pictures of them on there? Maybe we've seen them!"

"_Yuffie!_" Leon hissed, glaring daggers at her. _What is she __**doing**__? If Rachel's friends had arrived first, we'd already know because __**they'd**_ _be looking for __**her**__! She's getting the kid's hopes up for nothing!_

"You think so?" Rachel said, her face lighting up, oblivious to Leon's reaction. "I've got photos, plenty of them." She started flicking through the photos. "This isn't organized at all, of course... meme, selfie, infographic, a person being wrong on the internet? Why did I save that? Deleted. Incomprehensible meme, cat picture, cat picture, cat picture, cat picture..." She paused. "It's a _really cute_ cat, okay?" She flipped through a few more photos. "Oh, here we go! The four of us celebrating Jules's birthday." She held the phone out for everyone to see.

The picture in question starred Rachel, Kira, Jules, and Sarah, posing for the camera while seated in a red-leather booth. The girls were smiling at the camera with a relative amount of good cheer, at least when compared to Jules, who appeared to be looking rather uncomfortable.

Rachel remembered this day fondly. She, Kira, and Sarah had walked in on Jules on her birthday and had suggested they take a breather from life in general, and head down to their local hangout, a classic establishment complete with checkerboard flooring, arcade machines of various kinds, board game tables, and other such amenities. They then revealed their deception, and that it was in fact a _birthday_ hangout, and then proceeded to entrap Jules's skull beneath a party hat.

Jules might have been able to avoid being ensnared by this diabolical scheme, had she actually bothered to remember when her birthday was. In the end, they all went shopping for some food to take back for evening meals, and they had eaten ravenously while watching the Cornetto trilogy.

"That one's me, of course," Rachel said, pointing to different places in the image. "The unamused-looking girl wearing the party hat, that's Jules. The pink-haired one is Sarah — or, well, that's dye, ey's naturally brown-haired, it might have faded out by the time we actually find em — ah, Sarah uses ey/em/eir pronouns, if you didn't already guess that — Jules... Well, Jules just says she's a girl — which strictly speaking doesn't answer the question, but that's Jules for you — and that blonde is Kira, also she/her."

"This... pronoun stuff," Cid mused, turning away from his keyboard. "That normal in your world?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. Yuffie looked over at Rachel, awaiting her answer, as even she seemed a little bit thrown by this.

Rachel waggled her hand noncommittally. "Depends on the community, I guess."

"Speaking of pronouns," Yuffie interjected, "I wrote down mine and Leon's and Aerith's in the note we left her, and we all know Rachel's from the pin on her bag, which leaves only one of us who hasn't said theirs." She stared at Cid pointedly.

"... _What_?" he said, taking a moment to catch on. "Me? I'm a dude, obviously." He stated for the hypothetical record, a somewhat bewildered look evident in his face. He flinched instinctively as a crumpled-up wad of paper bounced off his face, Yuffie giving him a pointed look. "A _him_, I mean, for gods' sakes —"

"Sometimes it's not obvious," Leon quickly interrupted before Cid's temper could build up too high. "Which I _think_ is meant to be the whole point of asking, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Rachel responded. "And I try to ask everyone, even if it seems obvious, because trying to figure out who is and isn't obvious... that can get really awkward."

Leon nodded. _If I had asked that one lady, I could have avoided some trouble... but if I'd __**only**_ _asked her, I might have just caused trouble of a different kind._

"Um, anyway, on a note _other_ than trans etiquette 101..." Rachel said. _I am so not enthused for being an entire culture's __**sole**_ _frame of reference on trans people for the indefinite future. My kingdom for literally one other trans person... _"..._have_ y'all seen my friends?"

"I ain't seen them," Cid said, "but I don't interact with the refugees much directly, so that don't mean much. Leon, Yuffie?"

Yuffie gave Leon a pleading look. Leon just glared at her again. _**You**_ _got her hopes up. __**You**_ _dash them._

"Well..." Yuffie eventually said, when it was clear Leon wasn't budging, "... I haven't personally seen them. Unlike Cid, I actually do interact with the survivors pretty frequently... so we'll want to ask Aerith to be sure, but they're probably not here yet. New survivors are coming in all the time, though, so — "

_***SLAM!***_

With a shriek, Rachel scrambled backwards and behind the couch, while Yuffie and Cid protested loudly. Leon had just loudly smashed his gunblade into the floor, hard enough to leave a small crater.

"What the hell, Leon?!" Yuffie said.

"Why are you so bent on giving her false hope, Yuffie?" he responded. "Don't you realize how cruel that is?"

"_False hope?!_" Yuffie exclaimed, offended. "What are you —"

With another loud bang (and another shriek from Rachel), the door suddenly flew open and Aerith rushed in. "What's going on?! I heard a noise..." Slowly, she noticed Yuffie and Leon glaring violently at each other, the newly-formed crater in Cid's floor, and Leon's gunblade still embedded in that crater.

With an uncharacteristically severe look on her face, Aerith marched forward, stepping between the two and facing Leon.

"Don't kill him yet," Cid grumbled, "I still need to send him the repair bill."

Leon felt a chill run up his spine as Aerith stared him down.

In a flash, Aerith's guard stick was in her hand and she clonked Leon over the head with it.

"Ow!"

"Respect Cid's floor. And our ears." Aerith said sternly. "... Now, what happened here?"

"Leon started it!"

"... someone other than Yuffie, please answer that," Aerith amended.

Cid was quick to reply, and without even turning around. "Oh, you see, Leon slammed his gunblade into the floor."

Aerith turned her head towards Cid, and allowed her eyes to narrow. "Okay. Somebody else other than Cid."

"I-"

"Not you, Leon."

Cid turned his head, and looked over his shoulder at Aerith. "Well, I don't know who you're expecting to hear from, then. The only other person in this room is cowering in fear behind the couch. Didn't even know there _was_ a behind behind that couch..."

"Cowering in fear...?" One could almost see the gears turning in Aerith's head for several seconds, after which she immediately rushed over to the couch. From behind it, Rachel's breath was no longer quickening, and had already started to slow.

"In my defense," Rachel groaned, "at this point I'm less 'cowering' and more 'stuck'... this is a really cramped space." _That doesn't really sound better, does it?_

Aerith blinked, completely off-balance for a moment, but quickly regained her composure and snapped into action. "Leon, help me move this couch away from the wall."

A few moments later, the couch was in the middle of the room and Rachel was sprawled out on the floor, her eyes shut. "Ow... I think I'm going to stay here for a bit."

"You _could_ do that," Aerith allowed, "or you could come with us when we radio Master Yen Sid..."

_Yen Sid?! __**He's**_ _involved with this? That's... actually pretty reasonable, I guess, considering the scale of it, but still! _She thought, her racing mind thinking over the implications that learning this had brought up. _First Sora, now Yen Sid... I am __**so**_ _in over my head..._

"... We're still trying to figure out what to do next about... this whole situation," Aerith continued, oblivious to Rachel's inner panic.

"I don't think we strictly _need_ any more info from Rachel on what happened to her world," Yuffie mused. "Not unless she has some idea who might've targeted the Prime Cluster or why?"

A brief pause before Rachel realized she was expected to answer that. "... No, I have no idea."

"Yeah, didn't think so," Yuffie replied. "Worth asking, though."

"On an unrelated note, Yuffie," Aerith interjected, "Have you been reporting to Master Yen Sid on Rachel's condition?" She pointedly asked as Rachel herself jolted, and from her sprawled-out position, her eyes locked to Aerith.

"Eh?" Yuffie said, caught off guard. "I thought _you_ were handling reporting to Yen Sid."

"I was passing on everyone's reports, yes," Aerith said, "but that requires you to give me your reports, so that I can pass it on to Master Yen Sid. Since you weren't doing that, I thought you might be reporting to him directly..." A pause, as she realized Yuffie was only looking around, bewildered. "... And you weren't. _You_ were the one watching her, Yuffie! I wasn't going to know what was going on without you telling me!"

"You said you had it handled!"

"I didn't say I was going to do everything for you!"

"_What_ are you two even talking about?" Rachel interrupted, with a harsh tone. "What on earth is going on, here?! Were you going to tell me anything about this? You know, this thing that directly concerns me? Why does this _Yen Sid _guy need to know about... my _condition_?" She asked, feigning ignorance. "What do you mean by 'condition', anyway? Is this that weird aether thing again?"

"What? No! Or, well, kinda?" Yuffie said. "I mean it's sort of _about_ the aether thing, but... _someone_ was supposed to give Yen Sid updates on your _general_ condition. I don't really remember the details..."

"Why did we put Yuffie in charge of this, again?" Leon asked.

"Yeah! Why did you?" Yuffie said.

Rachel slumped back behind the couch in exasperation, head in hands. _Is this... just my life now?_

"Can y'all take a dang breath for one minute?" Cid exclaimed, actually taking a glance over at where Rachel was slumped. "You're overwhelming the poor girl!"

The others looked at each other for several awkward seconds.

Just as the silence had become too much to bear, Aerith approached the couch and spoke gently to Rachel. "I'm sorry, Rachel. We've been talking over you. Do you have something to say?"

Rachel rubbed at her eyes. "...can't _think_..." she muttered. _This is all so surreal... Fiction is actually real, I'm not alone in my head except suddenly I am again, and..._ She took a deep breath, in an attempt to steady herself. "Who is this 'Yen Sid' guy, and why is my condition relevant to his interests?"

Aerith took a moment to think about the question. "Master Yen Sid is a retired Keyblade Master. I imagine that phrase doesn't mean much to you — for now, it will suffice to say that he's a major force for good out here. As for why he needs to know, he's the most magically knowledgeable person we know, so we were hoping he could figure some things out."

Rachel frowned. "'Some things'? Can you be more specific?"

"Ahh..." Aerith faltered a moment. "Data about, like, how people from your world react to magic — like the aether-sealing spell Merlin invented. Wait, Yuffie did explain that, right? She was supposed to."

"Um, yes she did, but hold on," Rachel said. "You just sent my medical info to this guy, sight unseen, without even asking my opinion on the matter?"

Aerith blinked, confused. "Is that... a problem?" She seemed completely baffled by the idea that anyone would object to this. "It's very important data, it could save a lot of lives..."

Rachel sighed. "I _am_ in favor of saving lives," she grudgingly admitted, "but you still should've asked! I don't have any idea what kind of info you sent on to him, it's unsettling..."

"Well," Aerith replied, "strictly speaking we haven't actually sent _anything_ yet, because Yuffie was supposed to handle that and she didn't." As Aerith said this to a rather confused Rachel, Yuffie slowly turned her head towards them.

"So... that means I was _totally right_ to not send any reports to Yen Sid!" she declared cheerfully.

"_No_," Aerith responded sternly, as Rachel simply stared at them, her gaze resembling a frozen, unresponsive computer. "This may happen to work out all right, but you don't get to take credit for it." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Well. I suppose I have another report to make. Rachel, you said you wanted to give your opinion on what we do with your medical data? Now's your chance."

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "things that go at the bottom of the chapter"...**_

Hmm. I don't have a funny gag or deleted scene, and the only KH fic I'm really following right now is... huh! I guess it's _not_ super-popular. I mean it's _pretty_ popular, but that hit count doesn't actually reach the "basically the entire fandom is reading it so recommending it will mean nothing" level I thought it was at.

In that case, people who like very long canon-divergent AUs where people try their hand at fixing Nomura's follies, go check out the _Kingdom Hearts Ψ _series by HouseofSannae. I think they're AO3 only. Use your favorite search engine, I guess.

Those more into OC-centric canon retellings can check out _Eclipse of the Heart _by FadedPhantom, which I know I already recommended on DSI on account of it being one of the primary inspirations for that fic, but I'm sure some of you didn't read DSI anyway. It's in my favorites here on FFN.


	7. An Intro Via Radio

ATUHOR'S NOSE: This is a long one. It was gonna be even longer, but then James was like "yo this is getting way long" and I was like "oh dip, it totally is" so we split it.

Those who read DSI might be getting the impression that I don't underknow where to end chapters. This is because I don't underknow where to end chapters.

CO-AUTHOR'S NOTE: I did NOT say it like that! I'm British, for crying out loud!

* * *

Stars twinkled in the night sky, as per usual.

Aerith's dress flowed gently around her legs as she walked along, stepping through the occasional puddle more gently than Yuffie, with her own, differing choice in footwear causing slightly larger splashes than Aerith. It might not have been raining, but to Rachel, the air felt strangely moist, as if it had just been raining, and might be about to start raining again. Rachel was a little bit thankful she wasn't caught outside in the rain, but otherwise paid the weather no mind.

Rachel, Aerith, and Yuffie were headed to the radio room, but they didn't get very far before Rachel found herself wondering something.

"So... where _is_ my medical data, anyway?"

Aerith and Yuffie took a few more steps, gradually slowing down, until they both came to a halt, their feet grinding to a stop, and splashing down harder than before into some small puddles. They then slowly turned towards each other, both pairs of eyes meeting the gaze of the other.

"I, uh..." Aerith paused. "... I don't suppose you somehow came to the conclusion that you were still supposed to be the one to look her over?"

"Aerith, you said _you_ had it handled!" Yuffie responded in the tone of voice one uses to explain things to very small children. For the 3rd time in a row.

Aerith pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "We just, _minutes ago_, went over this... Never mind. Question answered."

Rachel tried her best not to laugh. _I kinda knew that would happen, but..._ "Since you don't have the data you're planning to send to Yen Sid... do you have some kind of plan for handling this?"

Aerith closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Well, there's only one way _to_ handle it, isn't there? Hold still for a moment. _Lib_—"

"Wait, slow down one second, will ya?" Yuffie interrupted, causing Aerith to flinch as the magic fizzled. "You can't just _do_ stuff, she doesn't know what kind of magic we have out here! You have to explain yourself!"

"... Right, I suppose that makes sense," Aerith said. She paused for a moment to think about it. "Well, Rachel, just for a starting reference point, what is magic like in your home world?"

Rachel blinked slowly, and spoke with barely a gesture. "Uhh... fictional."

Aerith opened her mouth to speak, but her mind had not caught up with her mouth, and so she faltered. "... Eh?"

"It's fictional," Rachel repeated. "There is... to the best of my knowledge," she mumbled quietly, "no magic of any kind anywhere in my world."

Aerith just stared for a few seconds, completely unable to form a coherent thought. "But..." She shook her head. "But, your aether source?"

"She doesn't know what it is either," Yuffie said. "Apparently it's a complete mystery..."

"That... makes even less sense..." Aerith muttered.

Yuffie looked at Aerith thoughtfully while the other woman muttered incomprehensibly. "Aerith? Are you okay? ... Maybe I should cast the spell while her brain reboots."

"Uhh..." Rachel was skeptical. "Are you sure you should do that?"

"Yeah, why not?" Yuffie responded nonchalantly. "Libra's an easy spell, anyone can cast it. _You_ could cast it."

"You sure? Even with my..." Rachel waved her hands vaguely. "You know, those weird quirks, that you were talking about earlier?"

Yuffie paused to think about that for a moment. "Well, that _could_ have an effect, I _guess_... Well, we'll look into that later! For now — _Libra_," she cast, and Rachel could just barely spot a brief glow in her eyes.

Yuffie leaned forward, inspecting Rachel closely. "Hmmm... The sealing spell seems to be holding up fine. No cracks or weak points I can see. Your aether levels are normal. No signs of injury or illness..." She paused and frowned as she looked at something in the vicinity of Rachel's forehead. "That's... different. Only a little, though. It's probably nothing."

"Ummm?!" Rachel very carefully refrained from flipping out. "That is _not _a reassuring thing to say to someone after using magic to scan their _brain_!"

"It— it really is probably nothing!" Yuffie said. "Like, if you had a brain tumor or something, I'd recognize _that_! It's just... brains have patterns, and the patterns have patterns, and... the pattern-patterns are a little different from what I normally see. If that makes sense?"

"That explains _less_ than nothing," Rachel said. "There are things I understood before you started talking that are now completely incomprehensible to me."

"Hmph!" Yuffie huffed, folding her arms. "Well, I'm not an expert in this stuff, so that's as good as I can explain it. Anyway, I've got all the important data, so..." She turned to Aerith and waved her hand in front of the other woman's face. "Hello? Are you alive?"

"Wait, that's the entire scan?" Rachel asked. "Just the magic stuff? You don't need any, like..."

"Baseline biological data on people from... around?" Yuffie responded, turning her head back towards Rachel, looking over her shoulder. "Nah, we've got plenty of that from scanning the other survivors. If we really need to scan you in particular, Aerith can do it. She's the expert."

"Relatively speaking..." Aerith muttered, seemingly still stuck in her trance.

"Oh, you're awake now?" Yuffie said. "Well come on, we need to get going and call Yen Sid already!"

Aerith shook herself awake. "Alright, alright... We'll put a pin in that particular mystery, I suppose." She conceded, starting up again towards their destination. "It's not like it's urgent, after all."

* * *

It wasn't much longer before they reached the radio room.

Rachel, having walked a fair distance following behind Yuffie and Aerith, had noticed that they were walking through areas of Traverse Town that Rachel hadn't seen before. Not only that, but as she crossed bridges over small streams of water, and got the opportunity to peek over the rooftops, she could almost see areas that seemed to be incomplete, or half-formed, a fair distance away from her, even with the buildings largely obscuring her vision.

Yuffie and Aerith also demonstrated some curiosity towards some sort of half-formed construct that appeared to be stretching around Traverse Town itself, and at a long length, at that. "Well, watch this space!" Yuffie had quipped. Aerith could only giggle in response.

After a decent amount of walking, the three of them came to the steps of a rather significant building, which Aerith promptly unlocked with a key she produced from a pocket. From the looks of it, this seemed to be some sort of town hall or some other such place where important matters would be dealt with. Inside the building, Rachel noticed what appeared to be an important-looking meeting room for some sort of council to convene within, and what appeared to be some kind of information desk.

They then came to the Radio Room, placed conveniently behind a door labelling it as such. Every wall of the place was packed with circuits and switches and vacuum tubes, all linked through who-knows-what, ultimately into a few speakers and microphones set on a table placed not quite in the center of the room. Aerith went to work, switching the equipment on, and making sure everything was working, while Rachel casually examined said equipment.

"Neato," Rachel said sincerely. _Old-fashioned as heck, but neato nonetheless._

"What, even compared to that 'phone' of yours?" Yuffie said, putting air quotes on "phone" with her hands, her having never seen the device actually make a phone call.

"It may be less advanced, but it's still fascinating," Rachel responded. "Plus, my phone is so miniaturized, I have no idea what any of the components do or how they work, and I couldn't even begin trying to figure it out, if it broke, came apart, or something. This stuff, I can almost follow the logic just looking at it..." She traced one wire from a microphone into the rest of the system. "... Well, I don't remember what the vacuum tubes are for, but the rest of it."

"Ooh, I bet Tron could help with that!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"... explaining what vacuum tubes are for?" Rachel responded, confused.

"That too, probably, but I _meant_ figuring out how your phone works!" Yuffie said. "He's got this fancy matter scanner thingy that could definitely see all the tiny little details."

Rachel thought about this for a moment. "It does sound interesting, at least, but I'm not sure what the _point_ of it would be. My phone is almost useless without a network, after all."

Yuffie shrugged. "If we can make more of them, then we'll have a new network, right? Then it can do all that other stuff you couldn't show us!"

"Uh..." Rachel paused, thinking about it. "That's not how it's _intended_ to work, but actually I do distantly recall a few cities pulling off a setup like that, so if you think you can figure out how to do that, go wild."

"_Please_," Aerith added, still fiddling with the radio. "Anything would be better than working with these finicky devices... Ah, there it goes, finally. Yuffie, watch these while I scan Rachel again."

"Again?" Rachel asked. "I know you were kinda zonked out at the time, but Yuffie _just_ 'scanned' me."

"She did, yes," Aerith said. "But I'd bet several munny that she didn't check you without the sealing spell."

"Of course not!" Yuffie exclaimed indignantly. "I can't just go around dispelling aether seals, not when I can't put it back afterwards!"

"... You didn't study the instructions Merlin gave us," Aerith stated, matter-of-factly.

Yuffie took a few moments to come up with her devastating retort: "... Uh, _yeah_ I _totally_ did, actually! It's just... hard to cast! Yeah!"

"This is _not_ filling me with confidence," Rachel said, vaguely remembering what Yuffie had said about the spell in question, earlier. "Can I vote to leave the thing how it is?" She asked, remembering the rather morbid image that had manifested in her mind.

"While it would certainly be _possible_ to do that," Aerith said, "the problem is that the spell is going to wear off eventually. And when that happens, we don't know how your body will react."

"Wh... what?" Rachel stammered. "Run that by me again?"

"Magic poofs eventually," Yuffie said. "and this is a new and experimental magic, so when it poofs, anything could happen."

"_Anything!?_"

"Not _literally_ anything," Aerith said, glaring at Yuffie. "It definitely won't... spontaneously cast an unleashed Ultima, for example. That's definitely impossible."

"Unleashed Ultima...?" Rachel said. _What even is that..._ "I'd like to reiterate here that my world has _no magic at all_. I have no idea what you mean when you say those words."

"Right, right," Aerith said. "How about... the seal wearing off can only do 'anything'," she said in air quotes, "in the domain of 'things that might happen if an untested spell designed to keep aether within someone's body ends suddenly, possibly dropping their aether to slightly worrying levels'. You might pass out, for example. Or get a headache. Or if you happened to be casting a spell at that exact moment, it might suddenly fail. Or maybe nothing will happen at all. We want to figure that out here and now, rather than out of the blue while you're doing something important."

"Also," Yuffie interjected, "if your mysterious aether source has stopped working in the meantime, you might, like, die."

"What?!"

"Yuffie!"

"Which is _less likely_ to have happened the _sooner_ we check," Yuffie added. "Which is another reason to check _now_ instead of later. And it's _not_ any less likely to have happened if we _don't tell her, Aerith_."

Aerith folded her arms. "Still, you could have tried saying it more tactfully than that."

Yuffie shrugged. "Sugarcoat it or not, it's the same risk. By the way, Yen Sid just came on the line." Yuffie politely informed Aerith, her words having a similar effect to a fairly moderate Stop spell. After a second or so, Aerith suddenly realized exactly what was going on, and moved, somewhat nervously, towards the radio equipment, as Rachel remained motionless, still under the all-powerful Stop spell that was being informed of how close they truly were to death.

Rachel simply stayed where she was, blinking. _I am not prepared to confront my mortality like this! I'm sixteen, I'm supposed to be invincible! _She thought to herself. _I'm not ready! I'm not ready for any of this, and I'm sure as hell not ready to die!_

She didn't have long to dwell on these thoughts, though, as Yen Sid took that moment to speak up. Rather than speech, however, Rachel heard a sigh of some sort of emotion, that she couldn't quite put her finger on, coming from the radio. "Greetings. This is Yen Sid, speaking."

The sound of his voice alone seemed to be enough to get Aerith to unconsciously stand upright, straight as a bolt, as even Yuffie's posture seemed to stiffen slightly, and Rachel herself took a few steps away from the radio she had previously been examining up close.

Aerith spoke up, curtly. "Uh, yes, Aerith Gainsborough, r-r-reporting in from Traverse Town!"

"Yuffie Kisaragi here too," Yuffie added casually, "and Rachel... uh, I don't actually know if she has a last name."

"... Indeed," Yen Sid responded. "On the note of our guest... I have noticed a distinct omission in your reports, Aerith."

His tone seemed to sound exactly the same as it usually did, yet something about it sent chills down Rachel's spine as she resolved not to make him mad.

"Ah, right, about that!" Aerith stammered. "The reason for that, is, that, uh..."

"Aerith screwed up!" Yuffie interjected quickly.

Aerith glared at Yuffie. "... there was a _miscommunication_. But with Rachel awake, and cooperative, and here, we can get any information we need right now."

There was a brief awkward pause. "... Cooperative, you say? An interesting choice of words."

"Well, uh, I mean..." Aerith stammered some more. "... We'd hardly be able to get much out of her if she wasn't, right?"

_I dunno, I bet they could still Libra at me even if I wasn't cooperating_, Rachel mused. _I'm sure it's not impossible to stop, but I'd need, like, Arc-level adversarial thinking to get to that point that quickly..._

"That certainly is true," Yen Sid said, "but I find myself wondering why you felt the need to mention it specifically at this time..." He asked of Aerith, before another thought seemingly came to him. "Aerith, have there been any... misunderstandings, or disagreements, over there?"

Aerith and Rachel stared at each other, panicked expressions on their faces.

_Oh, Light,_ Aerith thought, _I do __**not**_ _want to try to explain how we managed to lose track of an unconscious teenager..._

_Oh, gods,_ Rachel thought, _I do __**not**_ _want to try to explain why I thought it was a good idea to abscond like that..._

"Maybe something happened, maybe it didn't," Yuffie said, to dispel the awkward silence. "But we're all on the same page _now_, so no problem, right? It's all water under the bridge."

The awkward silence only continued, until Yen Sid finally responded. "Under the bridge, you say... Might I speak with our guest directly?"

This did not in any way reduce Rachel or Aerith's panic. After a few moments of Aerith and Yuffie looking from each other, to Rachel's direction, and back again a few times, Aerith nudged Rachel forward towards the radio.

"Eep! Um..." Rachel squeaked and stammered, as she found herself nervously wringing her hands, standing between Aerith and Yuffie on one side, and the radio on her other side. _Oh, gods, I didn't plan for this! What am I supposed to say to him?! He's an all-knowing character from what I thought was fiction, and now he's addressing me! What do I do?! What do I say?!_

Aerith decided to try and reduce the contagious awkwardness. "She's nervous, sir."

"...I can hear you there, girl. Please, we need to speak to you."

"I... I don't..." Rachel looked back at Aerith and Yuffie, a pleading expression on her face.

"...Aerith, get the poor thing a chair, would you?" Yen Sid asked with a weary voice, clearly wanting to either make Rachel more comfortable, or at least to keep her from passing out onto the floor, even if that meant passing out onto a chair, instead. Aerith quickly complied with the request, fetching a number of folding chairs from the corner of the room.

Aerith propped open one of the folding chairs, and placed it down for Rachel, who took the offered seat gladly. She pushed her back into the seat, hanging her head for a moment, before looking back towards Aerith and Yuffie, her expression still showing worry.

Aerith decided to try and get things moving. "Master, she's right here, but..."

"She's kind of a nervous wreck," Yuffie replied, finishing Aerith's sentence. "She's not taking things well, and I honestly don't blame her." She took a seat next to Rachel, and put a hand gently onto her shoulder. "Rachel, we need you to speak to us, now..."

Rachel took a deep breath and exhaled, just barely failing to stifle a distressed whine. _I gotta say __**something**__, what if they try __**making**_ _me talk? ... It seems out of character for them, sure, but after Riley put the idea in my head... or whatever..._ "This is... very distressing. I don't know what to say..."

"Well, let us start with something simple. Tell me your name."

"R- right... Like Yuffie said, my name's Rachel... and, uh, no, I don't currently have a last name." _My old one went bad and I haven't gone shopping for a replacement yet..._

"Well met, Rachel. As you may have already been informed, I am Yen Sid. It is my hope that we can work together to overcome the trials that have been set before us."

"Trials..." Rachel said. "That refers to my world being destroyed by eldritch abominations?"

Aerith and Yuffie glanced at each other in confusion.

"What's an 'eldritch'?" Yuffie whispered.

"Uh..." _Eldritch, elder, ancient? That's true, but it doesn't make sense in context. _"I'm not sure," Aerith admitted.

"If by 'eldritch abomination', you are referring to the Heartless, then yes," Yen Sid responded, a slightly perplexed tone to his voice as he repeated Rachel's words, "That is indeed what I am referring to. The terrible events that have transpired are truly beyond my understanding, and the same can most definitely be said for my friends and allies."

_He really doesn't know anything either, does he?_ Rachel thought. _I had really hoped the local Old Wise Man would sit down and Explain Everything... then again, I suppose that's really more for the __**end**_ _of the book, isn't it?_

"We hope that you will be willing to help us in any way you are able, and however much you possibly can, as I fear that these events bear dire consequences for all of us, not just the people of your world."

Rachel frowned. "... Do you mean, _aside_ from the fact that there's someone running around who's both willing and able to blow up a couple of thousand planets in one attack?"

"Indeed, one might have been tempted to proclaim that this problem is quite enough to be getting on with." Yen Sid quipped, seemingly sharing Rachel's deadpan sentiment. "Yet inevitably, there is more to it."

_Of course there is_, Rachel thought. _It's never just one thing._

"I see that you've been informed of the seemingly deliberate nature of this incident. I'm afraid that we will need to ask you many questions as to the nature of your world." Yen Sid spoke, seemingly with a heavy heart. "We do not know enough about your world to truly understand this problem, and the subject of your world is, by itself, quite a mysterious matter. For us, at least." He continued. "Therefore, the information you hold is of very high value, and is crucial to resolving this problem, for yourself, the people of your world, and the rest of us."

_High value...?_ Rachel thought. _What could I know that's so high value...? Wait. Bigger problem._ "Myself, my world, and 'the rest of us'? That being...?"

"...I wish to make it clear to you that this doesn't just affect you, and the people of your world. This issue will affect all of us."

"... And you're still talking about something _other_ than the blowing-up-lots-of-worlds thing?"

"Rachel, your world is more important than you seem to understand. The Prime Cluster, where your world resides, is a keystone of all existence." Yen Sid elaborated, speaking his words with a heavy inflection. "The Prime Cluster is widely considered to be the birthplace of all worlds."

Rachel blinked. "The..." _But..._ "And this person... destroyed... All of it?"

"We haven't, like, combed through the place looking for missed worlds," Yuffie said, "but... yeah, looks like all of it."

"Remind me again," Rachel said slowly, "how much 'all of it' is."

"Uh... last I checked it was still somewhere around two thousand worlds...?" Yuffie said. Rachel simply tipped her body forwards, and planted her face into her hands.

"Why..." Rachel muttered, folding her hands up to only cover her nose and mouth, her eyes between her fingers gazing into empty space. "...Why would somebody do this?"

"That is... a very good question," Yen Sid said. "It is, frankly, incomprehensible even to me what someone would gain from the destruction of the Prime Cluster. Determining our enemy's motivation is certainly going to be among our tasks at hand."

"Our enemy..." Rachel said. "Do you know who that is, then?" _Xehanort seems an obvious guess_, she thought, _but that would be a pretty radical departure from his plots as I know them..._

"Unfortunately, we do not," Yen Sid responded. "Thus far, we have been occupied caring for the survivors of the attack."

"Well..." Rachel paused, thinking about it. "Are there any leads, at least? Like could you do..." _... some Kingdom Hearts handwavey nonsense?_ "... like, a past-scry? Is that a thing that exists in this magic system? Or maybe something more mundane, like, erm... Try to triangulate the rocket trajectories back to their source?" Rachel asked, trying to find the words she was looking for. "Or, um, back-track along the path the rockets took?"

"There's no reliable way of viewing the past through magic, unfortunately," Aerith said. "Tracing the missiles, though... we'd have to talk to Sora about them for more details, but that might be a promising idea. The telescopes might have captured a few shots of them..."

"Oh, that is viable, then?" Rachel responded. "I was worried it might turn out that space is too big for that... Are you going to use magic for that?"

"The telescopes are already run by magic," Yuffie said. "Or, I mean, _mostly_ regular physical optics, but there's definitely some magic."

"Even the _telescopes_ are run by magic?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"If I may interject," Yen Sid interjected, "Rachel, are you not familiar with the uses of magic?"

Rachel glanced at Yuffie, then over to Aerith. _Ugh, of course neither of you told him, you haven't had __**time**_ _to tell him._ "Magic... doesn't exist in my world. At all."

There was a lengthy silence. "That is... most unexpected. But not unimaginable." Another pause, rather briefer. "Can you _use_ magic?"

"We haven't tried yet," Yuffie said. "We were gonna try starting with Libra. Oh, speaking of Libra, hey Aerith, shouldn't you be scanning her now?"

"Right, right," Aerith said, pulling a pen and a pad of paper out from somewhere. "_Libra._"

"I already did a basic scan earlier," Yuffie reminded Aerith, "and all of that came up fine. All you've gotta look at is the fancy stuff."

"Fancy stuff..." Aerith muttered, shaking her head. "Let's see... Looks mostly normal at a glance, but..." She leaned in to get a closer look. "It's... flowing?" She looked from Rachel's arm to her own, comparing the two. "Yeah, her aether is flowing, in a way that mine doesn't."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Really? Okay, _this_ I have to see for myself. How does one go about casting magic?"

"Let's finish this first," Aerith said, "but we can teach you afterward. Normally we start with learning your elemental affinity and casting the corresponding spell, but Libra is pretty easy, we could do that first."

Rachel frowned at that sentence. "Elemental affinity...? Why do I feel like I've heard that phrase recently?"

Aerith and Yuffie looked at each other in confusion. "Have we talked about elemental affinities at all lately...?" Aerith wondered.

"I certainly haven't," Yuffie said.

"Hmm," Aerith hmm'd, looking back to Rachel. "Well, it doesn't... That's odd."

"What's odd, the brain tumor patterns again?" Rachel snarked.

"What?!" Aerith looked up at Rachel's head. "... You don't _have_ a brain tumor," she said definitively.

"I told her that, but she didn't believe me!" Yuffie griped.

"I didn't say I didn't believe you," Rachel said, "I said your explanation was incomprehensible."

Aerith shook her head. "Your brain patterns are unusual, but not important. You probably just have a minor mental disorder. No, what's important is that I _can't find_ your elemental affinity."

Rachel frowned. _I'm not surprised by that. __**Why**_ _am I not surprised by that?_ "Minor mental disorder? Why didn't Yuffie just _say_ _that_? I already know I have some of those. What's so important about a 'missing elemental affinity', then?"

Aerith seemed a bit taken aback by how quickly Rachel glossed over the suggestion of a possible mental disorder, but decided not to comment on that. "It's... incomprehensible. I can't imagine how someone can _exist_ without an elemental affinity — sometimes it's physical force or unaspected magic, or esoteric things like void or time, but it's always _something_. Master Yen Sid, does this make any sense to you?"

A brief pause. "To the best of my recollection, this is unprecedented. But it has long been hypothesized... It is, I suspect, not particularly impactful."

"Not impactful?" Rachel said. "This has literally never happened before, and you think it's not impactful? Um, all due respect, but, _what_?"

"Elemental affinities are not _important_. They do not sustain life, nor magic. While it may have interesting scientific implications, it simply isn't worth worrying about, right now. Could you please continue, Aerith?"

"Umm, right," Aerith responded. "Everything else looks pretty normal... so, the next thing I'm going to do is look at what happens when the aether-sealing spell is removed. Yuffie, if you would?"

"Hm? Oh, right." Yuffie held a hand out towards Rachel. "_Dispel._"

Rachel felt a chill run down her spine as Yuffie spoke, though she wasn't sure whether it was an actual effect of the magic or just her own apprehension. Her hands gripped onto her chair involuntarily.

"The seal is gone," Aerith said. "Rachel, do you feel anything odd?"

"... Terror?" Rachel said. "But I don't know whether that's the magic or just the fact that there's a non-zero chance I could spontaneously drop dead now."

"There's always a non-zero chance of spontaneously dropping dead," Yuffie said. "You could be hit by a meteorite or something."

Rachel turned and stared at Yuffie with an appalled expression on her face. "Yuffie, is there like a class or something you can take on how to properly reassure people? Because that is clearly not part of your natural skillset."

"... I'll let Aerith do the talking for now," Yuffie said.

(Thousands of miles away, in the safety of his tower where he knew nobody would see him, Yen Sid drove his face into his palm.)

"Okay..." Aerith said. "A sudden feeling of terror, while _possibly_ directly caused by the drop in aether levels, is far more likely an ordinary emotional response. I'm still going to note it down for the record, but with a huge asterisk next to it." She took a moment to scribble that down. "Now, did you experience anything more like the symptoms I mentioned before? Lightheadedness, headache...?"

Rachel thought about that for a moment. "Not lightheaded. I don't have a headache anymore." _The medicine Yuffie gave me worked pretty well, it seems..._ "I seem... pretty unaffected, honestly. Physically."

"Mm-hmm." Aerith noted that down as well. "Her aether is floating away like before, now. It really does seem like most of it is just... drifting away, like she isn't even there. Some of it is still doing the flowing thing, but then it suddenly seems to... run out of steam, and drift off aimlessly." She observed, before her eyes suddenly flickered from one part of her to another in mild surprise. "Oh, it just refilled — the mysterious aether source is still there, then."

Rachel sighed with relief. "And the terror fades..."

Aerith scribbled on her notepad some more, then watched Rachel in silence for several seconds. "I don't see anything else of particular note... I'm going to recast the aether seal, then." She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she reopened them, the subtle glow of Libra was gone. Then she held a hand out toward Rachel and uttered a few arcane syllables that Rachel didn't recognize from any particular source, prompting her to back up into her chair, gripping the arm-rests tightly, and pushing herself as far backwards into the chair as possible.

Aerith gave Rachel a questioning look. "You all right, there?"

"What's with the... Cthulhu nonsense?" Rachel said. "Is that what magic sounds like? What happened to just saying the spell's name, like you did with Libra?"

Aerith blinked. "... 'Cthulhu nonsense'...? Um, I don't know what _that_ means, but that language was how magic was originally cast. Modern spells are normally refined to use simpler incantations, but... this spell's still a rough draft." She shrugged. "I guess it can sound a little weird, if you're not used to it."

_'A little weird'? Understatement of the day, that one!_ Rachel thought. "Um... well..."

"Given Rachel's apparent unfamiliarity with magic in general," Yen Sid interjected, "perhaps the next order of business ought to be teaching her. I would leave such business to Merlin while I handle more pressing matters, but I feel that I should, at the very least, keep a close eye on this particular matter."

_Why does everyone want to keep an eye on me?!_ Rachel wondered. "Um, yes, I suppose learning magic would be a good idea..."

"Particularly considering the oddity Aerith has noticed." Yen Sid replied. "Between that and your world's apparent magic-less nature, I cannot guarantee we will be successful, but I do believe that it would be wise to make an attempt, if only to record the results."

_Oh, __**now**_ _he has a spirit of scientific inquiry. Okay._ "Right... so, magic. How's that work?"

Aerith and Yuffie suddenly adopted expressions resembling those of people asked to explain something both inscrutable, and _terribly_ complicated, such as the meaning of life, the nature of the human condition, the reason for all existence, true love, free will, or the Kingdom Hearts timeline.

Aerith was the first to speak up. "Well! That's... quite a question there, Rachel. I suppose, at the heart, it's all about channeling the aether within you, drawing ambient aether into oneself, and manipulating the aetheric energies of the world in order to assert your will upon the world around you..." She explained, prompting Yuffie to turn her head.

Yuffie then spoke up with something different. "I always thought of it as simply channeling energy within, and manifesting it into reality, as an extension of the self!" She described, evidently not entirely agreeing with Aerith's description. "You know, channeling internal force into external power!"

"As Yuffie and Aerith have clearly demonstrated," Yen Sid interrupted, as Aerith and Yuffie continued their mild bickering behind Rachel, "there are many viewpoints on the nature of magic. By and large, they can be reconciled as different perspectives of the same natural phenomenon, though deeper conflicts of belief do exist as well."

Rachel nodded. "I think I get it... and, um, don't get me wrong, this _is_ interesting, but — what I _meant_ was, given that we're having me practice Libra, how do I go about casting that spell?"

Aerith and Yuffie promptly halted their argument. "Well!" Yuffie exclaimed. "It's real easy! You just pull the smallest amount of magic possible, channel it through your optic nerve, and boom, Libra!"

_... Optic nerve. And boom._ Rachel boggled at Yuffie's explanation. "... Aerith?" She asked, hoping that Aerith could provide a better explanation, or some actual insight as to what Yuffie was referring to.

Aerith shook her head. "You skipped over the most important part, Yuffie. Rachel's never cast a spell before. She can't manipulate magic by how it feels, because she doesn't know what magic feels like."

Yuffie thought about that for a moment. "Huh. How do you... explain that? That's like... well, like asking a fish to explain water!"

"You don't remember how it was explained to you when you first learned magic?" Aerith asked. After a few moments without a response from Yuffie, she shrugged. "Well, that's not how we'll be doing it today anyway. No, we'll be doing it the _easy_ way."

"Is there a reason it's not _always_ done the easy way?" Rachel asked skeptically.

"There is, yes," Aerith said. "The normal method is believed to give a better intuitive understanding of magic, but it takes a few hours of meditation — great for small children who need something to occupy them for a while, but not so great for people like us, trying to handle a state of emergency. And you can do the meditation later, anyway."

"I see..." Rachel said, only kinda seeing. "So what is the easy way, then?"

Aerith twisted her right hand in the air and muttered something magical-sounding that Rachel didn't quite catch, and her fingertips started glowing faintly. "I'm going to take hold of your magic — gently! — and pull on it a little bit. You'll feel that, and then you'll know the difference between your magic and the rest of you."

"Just to be sure — you're sure I _have_ magic, right?"

Aerith paused and thought about that for a moment. "Well, you have plenty of aether. Maybe you didn't have magic back home, but you probably do now. I suppose this can be a test for that as well. Hold out your arm, please."

"... Can I ask why?" Rachel asked, though she held out her arm anyway.

"Um..." Aerith halted, thrown slightly off-balance by this unexpected response. "Well, it's a bit of an unsettling feeling no matter where I pull, but I've tested, and the forearm seems to be the least unsettling." And having said that, she reached out and gently grasped — something? — not Rachel's arm, but something in the same space as it, and pulled on it, just a few inches away from Rachel's skin.

Rachel let out a noise that can't possibly be transcribed, a mixture of heavy confusion and slight distress. "Okay. Yes. I definitely feel that." _'Unsettling feeling' does not __**begin**_ _to describe this!_ Rachel had once read a short horror story where the main character's blood had exited their body and taken on a life of its own, and this sensation was very similar to what she had imagined that feeling like. "Please let go."

Aerith opened her hand, and Rachel felt — whatever it was, magic presumably — retreating back into her body. And now she could feel it in her entire body, much less unsettlingly now that it was back where it "belonged". And with that distraction off her mind, she could address the other thing —

"You didn't mention glowing veins," Rachel said, looking in fascination at the little web of glowing blue lines that had spread out from where Aerith had pulled on her magic.

"That... doesn't normally happen." Aerith said, staring in shock. "Yuffie, are you seeing this?"

"Yeah..." Yuffie said, a concerned tone in her voice. "That's definitely not something I've seen before."

"Describe them for me," Yen Sid said.

"A web of glowing blue lines, centered on the point Aerith pulled on my magic," Rachel said, fascination turning to apprehension. "They look like veins, and I _think_... yeah, if I remember my circulatory system correct, I think they're my actual veins. Or maybe arteries. Don't actually know which direction these are going. Um... is this a _bad_ thing?"

"It is... not a phenomenon I have witnessed before," Yen Sid said. "It may be harmless. Or it may not. I think I should like to have a look at this myself. And given the... blatantly magical nature of it, you would be well advised to avoid letting this mark be seen in worlds that have yet to discover the nature of magic."

"I guess I'll... wear long sleeves..." Rachel said. _This was not what I was expecting for my first tattoo._

"Oh, it looks like it's fading away," Yuffie said, pointing to one edge of the glowing web. Sure enough, it was slowly receding back toward the center.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. I admit that my first thought was _That's kinda cool-looking_, but I didn't exactly want to be glowing forever." A thought belatedly occurred to her. "Uh, you don't suppose the magic... somehow got _into_ my blood? What would that even imply, if it did?"

"Your blood already has magic in it," Aerith said, "as does every other part of your body. That's how aether works... It doesn't normally cause a vibrant blue glow, obviously. Hmm."

"Maybe..." Yuffie paused for a moment. "Maybe if Rachel's blood had an unusually high _concentration_ of aether, it could glow? I'm not sure how that would happen, though."

"Her aether _was_ flowing like blood," Aerith reminded Yuffie. "If it was literally following her blood vessels..."

"Oh, speaking of that!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Rachel, can you feel your magic now? Wanna try casting Libra?"

"Yeah..." Rachel muttered, staring at her hands. _This is a weird sensation, but the weirdest part is — it kinda seems familiar? I could swear I've felt this before..._

"Uh, Rachel?" Yuffie waved her hand in front of Rachel's face. "You awake?"

Rachel blinked as she snapped out of her trance. "R- right. Libra." She took a deep breath and focused on her magic. _Yuffie said... the smallest piece possible..._ Carefully, she pulled out as small a part of the magic as she could grasp, focused it on her eyes, and... _I sure hope that 'boom' wasn't literal._ "_Libra_—_ARGH!_" She flinched back hard, falling off her chair, which loudly clattered to the ground.

"Rachel, are you okay?!" Aerith exclaimed in shock, rushing over to her where she was sprawled out on the ground, having flopped down to the ground, forming a sideways fetal position, with both her hands covering her face.

"It's too _bright!_" She squealed, struggling to get her voice-box to make any sound beyond a timid squeak. "How do I get it off?!"

"Um, the first thing you'll want to do— "

"_Dispel,_" Yuffie intoned, and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief as the sensory assault ended. "... Seemed better to handle this first, and explain later."

"R- right, of course," Aerith muttered, looking sheepish.

"Ow..." Rachel groaned, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to clear the shine from her vision, and shifting to a seated-ish position. "That was... not fun. And closing my eyes just made it worse...?"

"I... imagine you were seeing the aether in your eyelids, when you did that," Aerith said. "That's not normally a problem, though..."

"Well, the spell's design doesn't seem to have accounted for _light sensitivity_..." Rachel grumbled, still keeping her hands over her eyes.

"Wait," Yuffie interrupted suddenly. "Those sunglasses are for a practical reason? I thought you just wore them to look cool."

Rachel boggled for a moment, _still_ covering her eyes. "Um. I mean. They do look... cool, I guess. But they're for bright light conditions. I need glasses anyway, and transition lenses are expensive, so..."

Aerith frowned. "You... need glasses?" she asked, in much the same tone you might use to respond to someone who had just boldly declared "I plarp bees".

Rachel's eyes were still stinging a bit, but despite this, she decided that a response like that deserved a look of Severe Consternation, so she dropped her hands and turned to Aerith with a look of Severe Consternation.

Aerith and Yuffie gasped in shock. Aerith's hand moved up to her face, hovering just a short way away from her lips. Yuffie's hands tensed, as she returned Rachel's gaze with a gaze of her own.

"Um," Rachel ummed, her retort of disbelief forgotten. "What?"

"Your eyes..." Yuffie said. "... Maybe you should just see for yourself. I don't have a mirror, but..." She retrieved an improbably large shuriken and held it in front of Rachel. "This should be reflective enough."

"... Where were you holding that?"

Yuffie waved her other hand dismissively. "Later. Look."

Rachel leaned toward the shuriken apprehensively. She immediately noticed that her reflection was distinctly bluer and glowier than she was accustomed to, and looking closer, it was clear the glowing blue veins were now radiating from her eye sockets.

"... _What._" Rachel spoke in a flat, deadpan tone, turning her head to get a better look. _I __**guess**_ _this follows from the other thing, but also... what?! _She didn't say, as she moved her hand gently towards the blue marks, both wanting to touch them, and being afraid to touch them.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Aerith said.

"_A-hem._" A loud throat-clearing noise emanated from the radio. "Might I be informed of just what precisely we are looking at?"

"It's the glowing lines again," Rachel said, her voice quivering, as she gingerly touched one of them, "but now they're coming from my _eyes_..."

"You sure you should be poking at it like that?" Yuffie asked, her concern widening her eyes.

"Not in the slightest," Rachel admitted. "It doesn't seem, like, sore or tender or anything, at the least, but..." She dropped her hands. "I'll leave it alone, just to be safe."

"And this... phenomenon... It was caused by a backfiring Libra spell?"

Aerith turned her head from the radio and towards Rachel, and she took another look at Rachel, the pulsing blue vein-like cracks still present, and seemingly not fading, at least not as fast as the ones on her arm had. "Yes... I've never heard of Libra backfiring _in my life_, but as soon as Rachel cast it, she screamed and fell, covering her eyes, saying that something was 'too bright' as she put it." Aerith solemnly turned back to the radio, as Yuffie drew closer to Rachel. "I don't have any idea what's going on, or what to do, Master! I've never seen anything like this!"

"What was that spell _supposed_ to do, anyway?" Rachel asked. "I gathered that it's supposed to be, like, a scanning spell or something, but when I cast it, it just made everything glow super bright..."

Aerith put her closed fist on her chin. "Libra is _supposed_ to make things glow... Is that really all it did?"

Yuffie raised her head to look briefly towards Aerith, her pondering showing in her face. She turned back towards Rachel. "Is everything alright?" She asked, before suddenly having a thought. "...Didn't you say something about 'light sensitivity', earlier?"

Rachel turned her head back towards Yuffie, the glowing blue cracks in her face inadvertently putting Yuffie on edge. "Bright lights like that, they really hurt my eyes!" She answered. "If that's what the spell normally looks like, I have no idea how you can take lights that bright..."

"Huh," Aerith frowned. "It sounds like the spell didn't backfire after all?"

"Are you sure, Aerith?" Yuffie replied. "Her face has _still_ got the glowing blue things on it! And besides, why else would she fall off the chair the way she did?"

"There is that," Aerith admitted. "Maybe she was just flinching from the pain of the light, but there's still the glowing..."

"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Though... that also happened when you did the magic-pulling thing, too? Hmm..."

"It is indeed a mystery," came Yen Sid's voice over the radio. "One that might be better resolved if I see this for myself." Rachel, nervously, clambered back into her chair. "For now, I insist that you meet with Sora at once."

Rachel just barely managed to keep a cool head, her body seizing up slightly. Her hands gripped tightly onto her legs. "...Sora?" _What would Sora even have to do with this?!_

"Indeed. Aerith and Yuffie are already friends with him, so I believe they can introduce you, if need be. They might have some photos around that they can show you, so you know who you're looking for." Yen Sid stated, as if nothing was in the least bit odd. "As for Sora, he already knows who you are. He's made his personal interest in your case very, very clear."

"Already kn— _Personal interest!?_" Rachel echoed again. _What?!_

"He tends to get rather invested in other people's problems." Yuffie explained. "Although, I think that he thinks you're somehow his problem."

Rachel froze, torn between panic and puzzlement. _How am I Sora's problem?! I've never even met him! ... Oh, wait, I can just— _"How... would I be Sora's problem?"

"Ehh," Yuffie said, holding her hand out flat and jiggling it around. "he wasn't really clear on that? He seemed pretty... wound up, I guess? Definitely not as sunny and mild as he usually is. Maybe he just wanted to make sure the one survivor he ran into really did survive in the end?"

"Well, it is like him to wish the absolute best for people, isn't it?" Aerith asked, to which Yuffie could only shrug her shoulders. "...Although, even then, he was very worked up, and _that_ really isn't like him..."

Rachel's brain continued doing somersaults in her skull. _Why don't I remember any of this?!_

"Didn't he say something about almost being killed by zombies?" Yuffie said. "That'd get anyone worked up, I think."

Rachel's brain went from somersaults to crooked-cartridge spins. "Zombies?!"

"Yeah," Yuffie said, "they're these crazy-strong Heartless that —"

"I know what a zombie is! There were _actual zombies_?!" And then her brain caught up with the phrase "crazy-strong Heartless" and it occurred to her that maybe she _didn't_ know what a zombie was, but by then the conversation had moved on.

"Sora referred to them as such, yes," Yen Sid said. "He did not describe them in great detail, but you should keep in mind that they are unlikely to be exactly as you may imagine them. In any case, that is a discussion for later. Sora _should_ be arriving in Traverse Town _soon_." And the tone in which he said _that_ made it quite clear that, as far as Yen Sid was concerned, seeking Sora out was to be Rachel's top priority.

"Yeah, we should definitely get to that," Yuffie said. "Anything else that needs to be handled?"

"No," Yen Sid said, "we have discussed all of —"

And then he suddenly stopped talking.

Rachel blinked. "... Did something just happen?"

"Master Yen Sid?" Aerith asked. "Are you there?" She inspected the radio, carefully fiddling with some controls. "Hello?"

Rachel and Yuffie just kinda stood there for a few moments, staring in confusion as Aerith tried to figure out what was going on.

And just as suddenly, the radio crackled back to life.

"My apologies," Yen Sid said. "There has been a change of plans. Rachel. Are you capable of defending yourself?"

"Wh?" Rachel took a moment to let her brain catch up to that. "I... took self-defense classes back home, but..." Her brain inexplicably provided her with the phrase _in case some human saw my trans pride pin_, which she dismissed as not contextually relevant.

"Were you able to defend yourself against the Heartless that invaded your home?" Yen Sid asked.

Rachel shook her head, then realized she was talking over a radio and he wouldn't see that. "Not at all... I couldn't even scratch them..."

Yen Sid paused just long enough that Rachel could somehow tell he was nodding solemnly. "That is more common than you may realize. Under the present circumstances, however... I would have preferred to leave this decision up to you, but now, it seems we no longer have a choice. You will need to arm yourself. Aerith, Yuffie. You know what to do."

Rachel blinked a few times. "Wh... what just happened? Why do I suddenly need to arm myself?"

"Yeah, like, I know it's obviously a good idea for people to be able to defend themselves," Yuffie said, "what with Heartless and stuff, but weren't we supposed to not be making a big deal about that if we can avoid it?" A moment later, her brain caught up to the implications of that "if". "Oh. Oh, _shoot_."

"I see that you have ascertained the nature of the trouble," Yen Sid said. "We've not much time, but suffice it to say that I've just received a communication from Sora..."

* * *

Above the hustle and bustle of Traverse Town proper, was a trademark perpetual night sky. Many long-term residents of Traverse Town had gotten used to this, whether quickly or slowly, but it often threw off newcomers.

The most common theory for why there was such a perpetual night, interestingly enough, was so that the town could be welcoming to all kinds of people from all kinds of worlds, worlds that had been presumably lost to darkness. Often, it would be daytime in one of these worlds, while it could not only be night-time on another part of that world, it was also presumably night-time somewhere else, on some other world, which had also been lost.

Hence, the perpetual night sky served to help poor, unfortunate refugees actually get some god-damned sleep once in a while without the sun glaring in their eyes like an absolute bastard.

As for the aforementioned sky, within it could be seen a single ship, gently drifting down towards a designated landing pad. It delicately touched down, positioning itself perfectly on the pad.

Within the ship, Sora's focus had been locked to the on-board computer, which had been handling the landing. He had been sitting with rapt attention, just waiting, standing by, on the off chance that something unexpected happened.

Once the ship had touched down successfully, he released the breath he hadn't been deliberately holding, and relaxed his posture, slouching slightly in his seat, letting his hands fall into his lap. After a moment, he spoke, his head slightly hanging forwards. "Hey, Jiminy, I've been thinking..."

Jiminy sighed. "I already agreed to keep quiet, Sora, you can be sure I won't go against that." As a conscience, he could only express his opinion on Sora's decision, not take matters into his own hands and tell people himself. Even if, strictly speaking, he wasn't _Sora's_ conscience.

"Not that," Sora said, still looking straight ahead. "No, what I've been thinking is... d'you think I did the right thing, back there?"

"Hm? How d'you mean?" Jiminy asked.

"It's... I know we have rules for a reason, but I thought it'd be okay if I kept an eye on her. But then I _immediately_ lost track of her! So... " He ran his hand through his hair. "I dunno. Did I screw up, Jiminy?"

Jiminy hopped up onto Sora's shoulder. "I think... you had a very hard decision to make, and you did what you thought was best. But you _did_ make a decision and take action. A lot of people in the same position wouldn't be able to say the same."

Sora closed his eyes in thought. "Yeah, but... what if some of that bad stuff you said _actually happens_, cause I'm not there to keep an eye on her?"

"Well, that's why you're lookin' for her now, isn't it?" Jiminy said. "Speaking of which..."

Sora leapt to his feet. Jiminy, anticipating this, was already clinging to his collar. "Right," Sora exclaimed, popping open the cockpit, which opened with a hissing sound. "we should get going!"

Sora leapt out of the ship and was prepared to bolt for the exit when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye and froze in his tracks.

"Jiminy, did you see that...?"

"I did."

A Corridor of Darkness closing.

"That's not a good sign... Riku can't use those anymore. Why would anyone who _can_ use those be lurking around here?"

"... You think it might be related to the Prime Cluster survivors?" Jiminy ventured.

"That'd make sense," Sora said, feeling a growing sense of unease. "We gotta tell the Committee!"

"It'll take a while to run from here to there," Jiminy said, "it'd be faster to radio them."

"Right!" Sora jumped back into the ship and grabbed the handset, mashing the button to open communications. "Come on, come on, connect... Hello? Hello?"

"Sora?" Yen Sid answered. "Is there something wrong?"

"M- Master Yen Sid!" Sora exclaimed, surprised. "Oh, shoot, I forgot to dial it to the Committee first!"

"As it happens, I am currently speaking with the Committee myself," Yen Sid said. "What is happening?"

"I-I just got to Traverse Town, and I just saw a Dark Corridor closing! Someone's up to something, we gotta warn the Committee!"

"A Corridor of Darkness..." Yen Sid said. "... That is potentially troublesome indeed. Given the refugee situation, I worry that this mysterious miscreant might be after them..."

Sora responded with a thought of his own. "Do you suppose this had something to do with all the Gummi Heartless?" He asked, recalling the strangely high number he'd seen on his way towards Traverse Town. "We weren't in any real danger, I don't think, but there were enough to hold us up quite a bit..."

Yen Sid remained silent for a moment, then spoke. "Please hold, Sora." He said, before his end of the radio went dead silent.

Sora frowned. "Jiminy... If this person's here because of the refugee situation... d'you think they're after Rachel?"

Jiminy gave Sora a look that Sora didn't notice, deep in thought as he was. "...Sora, she's one refugee out of many, why would they be after her out of all of them? You need to stop obsessing over her in particular, out of all the others!"

"Jiminy, she's the only one I personally ran into, and the only one I Bequ—" Sora cut himself short, glancing at the radio. He reached out and flicked a switch, muting the input. "Well, _you know_. She's not just any random survivor!"

Jiminy frowned. "She's not... _actually_ insignificant now, I'll grant you. But I don't think anyone knows that but her and us two... so it wouldn't make sense for anyone to be after her."

"Yeah, you're right," Sora said. "I'm just worried... And, actually, now that I think about it, don't Keyblade Masters have some way of telling if someone is a Bearer?" Sora groaned. "_Riku_ might randomly run across her and then the whole thing will be out... I didn't think this through at all..."

"I don't think _that's_ particularly likely," Jiminy said. "... His Majesty, on the other hand, might want to look into the situation, once he gets back from his latest mysterious journey."

Sora groaned again, bringing his hands up to his face. "I can't believe I just went and did that without thinking..." He wiped his hands down his face, pausing for a moment as they fell limply into his lap, as he suddenly recalled all those other times he just went and did something without thinking. "... Okay, fine, I _can_ believe it, but _argh_!"

He didn't have to dwell on that for long, as the radio conveniently picked that moment to crackle back to life. "Sora?"

"Master —" Sora fumbled with the radio, taking a few seconds to find and deactivate the mute button. "Master Yen Sid! I'm here!"

"I have spoken to the Committee. They will be assisting Rachel in arming herself."

"Yuffie's got the weapons stash, right?" Sora said. _No mention of the Keyblade? Surely, if they're helping her get armed... unless she's keeping quiet about it too...? I __**definitely**_ _shouldn't say anything, in that case._

"Indeed she does. You know where to meet them, then. Go, quickly."

* * *

**Rachel attained the power of insight. Learned Libra! (kind of)**


	8. Getting Gear, Getting Going

ATUHOR'S NOSE: Fun fact, the phone feature described in this chapter doesn't exist anymore on my current phone. Presumably it was removed for being _really damn niche_, like seriously, how often is that really gonna be useful, if you're not stranded in another universe with someone who has so little experience with smartphones that they're still impressed by scrolling?

Anyway, here's more chapter.

CO-AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another fun fact, people being impressed by the scrolling on Rachel's phone is directly taken from how an entire audience was blown away by the scrolling on the original iPhone when it was originally presented by Steve Jobs, in 2007. According to him, somebody inside Apple even said "you had me at scrolling" when shown the many features by Jobs himself.

* * *

Rachel was distantly aware that Yuffie had her by the hand and they were running off somewhere. Aerith had gone her own way, back towards the other survivors, where she felt she was needed, and Yuffie was now taking Rachel someplace. Instead of focusing on that, however, she was mostly just shrieking internally.

_What the hell is going on?!_

Rachel's head kept spinning as her feet moved by themselves, following Yuffie's lead. It was as if she was on autopilot, as her mind tried desperately to gather itself after what had just happened to her.

The Heartless were one thing. Traverse Town was another thing. But talking to Yen Sid himself, and being told that Sora was personally interested in her case, just defied belief. Rachel couldn't help but wonder what she'd gotten into, and how she'd gotten into it.

_I can... __**kinda**_ _accept that Kingdom Hearts is a true story. Given that, it's... not impossible to accept... Heartless, and Traverse Town, and Yuffie and Aerith and all that... but... this whole idea that __**Sora**_ _wants an eye kept on me? It's... just too much._

"Rach?"

"Meep!" Rachel flailed about wildly, startled by the sudden sound of Yuffie's voice.

Yuffie blinked. "Um... you all right? You seemed kinda zoned out, muttering to yourself and stuff."

"I'm..." Rachel trailed off. "This is just... a _lot_ to take in..."

Yuffie nodded sympathetically. "That's understandable... that said, we're here, so what kind of weapons training do you have already?"

Rachel boggled. "Uhh... _none_?"

"Wh— " Yuffie stammered. "You said you took self-defense!"

"Yeah, I took _unarmed_ self-defense!" Rachel exclaimed. "That's the normal kind of self-defense in my world!"

Yuffie shook her head in disbelief. "You mean to tell me your world has fancy future technology and no magic, and you're _not_ all carrying around fancy future weapons?"

"Sorry, Yuffie," Rachel said, shrugging. "Fancy future weapons do _exist_ in my world, but... it's mostly just the military, cops, and weapon nerds that actually have them."

"Aww..." Yuffie said, disappointed. "Well, in that case..." She promptly turned 180 degrees on the flat of her foot, and marched a few paces towards a nondescript building that she had stopped Rachel in front of.

"Get a look-see at this, Rach!" Yuffie said excitedly, before opening the door, and throwing it open, revealing the interior of what was, without question, a profoundly empty building, without so much as a source of light.

"Ta-dah!"

Rachel tilted her head, puzzled. "It's... an empty building?"

"Huh? Oh. Um. Right." Yuffie closed the door again, flushed with embarrassment. "I _totally_ did that on purpose, to make sure nobody was in the facade," she lied, and quickly took out a key she had on her person, before inserting it into the keyhole of the door, and turning it this way and that. "Alright, I think I've got it now..." Yuffie mumbled sheepishly as she opened the door, and glanced inside. "Okay, yes, that's right," she uttered, throwing open the door a second time.

This time was much more impressive. The room was now much more well-lit, with a golden glow draped across the walls and floor. The room was also stacked, wall-to-wall, with a large assortment of weaponry, ranging from short swords, long swords, daggers, curved swords, knives, shields, throwing stars, kunai, pole-arms, axes, items that seemed to be some sort of magical artifacts, bows, crossbows, knuckles, claws, chakrams, and even some weapons that Rachel couldn't make heads or tails of. Everything was laid out surprisingly neatly, too, especially since it was Yuffie who had brought Rachel here.

_... Well, damn,_ Rachel thought. _That's a lot._

"Right!" Yuffie declared. "Now, like I was saying, if you have no weapons training, the best to start with would be something simple." She started looking over the shorter and simpler blades thoughtfully. "Hey, what kind of weapons did they use on your home world?" Yuffie asked, turning back towards Rachel. "Just curious."

"Um..." Rachel audibly pondered, thinking back to a few late nights she had spent with Jules in tow. "...Guns. Lots of guns."

"What, like... bullets? Not lasers, or anything?" Yuffie tilted her head.

"Yeah. Sometimes people will pull out knives if guns aren't available, or if they're out of ammo. Some people carry around heavy flashlights more as a weapon than a light source. Cops use batons or tasers, sometimes."

"...No swords?"

"No, not in actual fights, not in modern times. Some sports, but nothing else. Well, and some nerds who just really like swords."

Yuffie frowned and looked back at the weapons. "Well, I don't have any batons or heavy flashlights, and I don't actually know what a 'taser' is, but I've got knives," she said, turning back around and gesturing to the many, many knives of varying types hanging on the wall, seemingly scanning through them, her eyes darting around as she examined each and every single one, running through a list in her head.

_Knives really aren't long enough to deal with Heartless, but there must be a __**reason**_ _Rachel said 'no swords'. Hmm..._ "Let's see, how about this one?" Yuffie asked suddenly, tenderly taking a small, slightly curved blade from the rack, and presenting it to Rachel. Rachel was immediately reminded of a machete she'd seen in Jules's possession one time.

"Take a look at this," Yuffie said. "This is what's called a 'tanto', a blade I've used before, myself. I've got a bit of heritage, you see." She explained, turning the blade over in her hands, letting Rachel get a good look at the weapon. "It's large for a dagger, yes, but I don't think a regular knife or dagger will really help against something like the Heartless. You'll need something bigger than that."

Rachel took the weapon and stared at it. The blade was _significantly_ longer than anything she'd ever wielded before, even as practice, not that that meant much since the closest thing to practice she'd ever had was with puny rubber replica knives (the purpose of which was to learn how to _defend_ against blades anyway). "I, uh... feel I need to reiterate that I have _zero_ practice with this kind of thing."

Yuffie sighed. "Yeah, I know you said your people don't use swords, but things are different out here. Swords are kind of standard. I don't want to put too much on you though, so consider this: A grip and guard much like a sword, a blade wide enough to slice and stab, while still hopefully being small enough for you to handle decently. What do you think?"

Carefully, Rachel gave the weapon a few experimental swings, as Yuffie stepped away to provide some space. _If I'm gonna use __**some**_ _kind of blade in actual combat..._ "It's not like 'my people' have, like, some kind of cultural objection to swords. They're just not relevant in the societal context of..." She paused, noticing that Yuffie's eyes were starting to glaze over. "Uh, that is, we don't do a whole lot of stuff that swords are the best choice for. Fighting Heartless, for example... that wasn't really a thing back home. Anyway, this one seems like it'll work, I guess?"

"You _guess_?" Yuffie exclaimed. "Oh, no no no, that's not good enough — your weapon should be _perfect_, it needs to speak to you on _every_ level!" She turned back to the weapon wall.

Rachel blinked. "_What?!_ I mean, okay, ideally, I'd try out more weapons to see what works best, but aren't we on a time limit here?"

"Rachel..." Yuffie started. "A weapon needs to complete a person, and it needs to be one with you in spirit! It needs to be a part of you, an extension of yourself, and a manifestation of your inner force!"

"Yuffie — that makes even less — I have no idea what you're — _what_?"

Yuffie stammered, looking perplexed for a moment, before allowing her shoulders to slump. "...You really don't know? Alright, I'm sorry, I kinda just assumed..." _Jeez, what kind of world __**does**_ _she come from?! _"...Look, we have a bit of time, could you just take a look at the other weapons, and see if anything else stands out to you? I just want to get this as right as we can..."

Rachel sighed. "Right, okay. I can at least have a look, if we have time." She looked at the wall of weaponry, and the large collection of knives and daggers, placed close to what appeared to be her stash of shurikens and kunai, amongst other typical ninja equipment. "What would _speak to me_ most right now would be _going home and not fighting for my life_, but I'm gathering that that's not an option..." she muttered, before quickly turning back to the weapon wall. "Are these _all_ your weapons, Yuffie?"

"Huh?" Yuffie took a moment to catch up to the question. "Oh, well, _mostly_ mine. I let the rest of the Committee store their weapons here, if they wanna. Leon's got a few gunblades hanging up over there," she said, gesturing to another wall.

"Yep. Sure do. Don't touch 'em."

Rachel leapt back, flailing her arms wildly, and fell to the ground again. _Ow! That's the second time I've done that today!_

Yuffie, for her part, only flinched, looking more annoyed than startled. "Don't _do_ that, Leon!" she said, stomping her foot petulantly. "Especially not to people holding sharp objects!"

Hearing that, Rachel looked around frantically for the tanto that she was sure had been in her hand a moment ago. _Uh-oh..._

"She's fine," Leon said, "she put it away, see?"

"A- away?" Rachel responded, confused.

Leon blinked. "Uhh... y'know, away?"

Yuffie suddenly pulled out the comically oversized shuriken again. "Like this!" She proudly exclaimed, meeting Rachel's baffled gaze, which Yuffie now realised resembled her expression from the last time she'd done this in front of her. "Heyyy, but you said you didn't know where I was — Leon, I don't think Rachel knows about this!"

"I don't," Rachel said. "Also," she added as she dove under a nearby table for a moment, "it's not... 'away'." She crawled back out and stood back up, tanto in hand once again. "It just sorta... went over here." She said awkwardly, placing the tanto on the table.

Leon frowned. "That's... weird. How can someone not even _know_ about —"

"It's _fine_, Leon," Yuffie said. "Her _whole world_ is weird. There's gonna be a lot of stuff she doesn't know."

Leon sighed. "Okay. So... getting armed. What kind of weapons are you used to?"

"... Nothing," Rachel said.

"Yeah, we kinda just went over all this," Yuffie interrupted, "basically, people in her world don't really use weapons much, except guns. A lot of guns, right?" She asked, turning to Rachel for confirmation.

Rachel nodded. "Other weapons exist, but like... if someone seriously needs a weapon, a gun is what they use."

"Guns, huh?" Leon responded. "Well, I do know something about guns." He headed over to the gunblade wall and pulled on the display, revealing several more weapons.

"Gun_blades_ aren't a thing, though," Rachel clarified, as she walked over to take a closer look anyway. "I mean, bayonets exist, but those are usually attached to a regular gun, they're not..." She trailed off suddenly, as her eyes went from scanning idly across the wall, to being locked on one particular point.

"Uh, Rach, you all right?" Yuffie said, with more than a hint of concern.

"What's that," Rachel said pointing to a certain item in a corner of the display dedicated to smaller weapons.

Though given the familiar-looking 5-inch barrel, covered with a slim, semi-automatic pistol slide, a grip bearing two visible screw-heads, and a familiar-looking hammer just above the grip and behind the slide, she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew, and what differences there were did nothing to hide the clear and blatant resemblance.

"What, that thing?" Leon said dismissively. "That's just an automatic pistol. That kind of thing isn't used much around here, but I make sure to keep it maintained, just because I have the thing..."

"Semi-auto, though, right?" Rachel said, carefully taking the gun and inspecting it, keeping it pointed in a safe direction. "Not to be, like, pedantic, but..."

"Uh, yeah, technically," Leon said. "Do you recognize this gun?"

"Remember a few minutes ago," Rachel said, "when I said I had no weapons training? I was rounding."

"... Rounding." Leon seemed incredulous.

"I've had a small amount of training in, like four weapons. I glossed over that because I assumed none of them would be on the table. But..." She put the weapon down. "How do you even _have_ a Colt 1911?"

"A _what_?" Yuffie said. "What kind of a name for a weapon is that?"

"One Jules will never let me forget," Rachel muttered, vividly remembering her friend's rather drastic reaction to the time she had called it 'the default pistol'. "Um, Colt is the name of the original manufacturer, and 1911 is the... year..." She frowned. "No way do you reckon years the same way out here, surely? Which just kinda raises the question again, _how do you even have a Colt 1911_?"

"I... don't understand half of that," Leon said. "We call this pistol the Quicksilver. If it somehow matches something in your world... I don't even know what that implies."

"Quicksilver..." Rachel repeated. _Final Fantasy weapon names, I guess..._ "Well, whatever name it goes by — Yuffie, if we're looking for weapons that 'speak to' me, this is the only one even in a language I recognize."

"Um, hm." Yuffie thought about that for a moment. "Well, I mean, it belongs to Leon, so really, it's his call."

"Well, I wouldn't mind finally getting some use out of the thing," he said, "but I think I'd like to make sure you're competent with it, first. This is a dangerous weapon."

"They're _weapons_," Rachel pointed out. "They're _all_ dangerous. That's their _job_."

"True, but this one is a lot easier to make mistakes with." Leon fiddled with some knobs Rachel hadn't noticed, and a panel in the floor at the far end of the room slid open, from which rose a target dummy — a model of a Soldier Heartless, held vaguely upright by a steel pole. He walked over to be behind Rachel instead of between her and the target. "Go on, take your best shot."

"Really?" Rachel responded incredulously. "I _know_ nobody with sense stores firearms with ammunition loaded," she said, proving the point by pulling the slide back partially and showing the empty chamber.

"Some people don't know that..." Leon said, giving Yuffie a smug look so subtle that only the finest facial-recognition scientists would be able to distinguish it from his normal expression.

"Some people aren't gun nerds!" Yuffie said defensively.

"... Nobody _with sense_," Rachel repeated, glaring at Yuffie. _Note to self — and also Riley, if they ever come back — do __**not**_ _let Yuffie touch a firearm._ "Anyway. Can I get some ammo?"

"Strictly speaking, no," Leon said, rifling through a drawer.

Rachel waited a moment, expecting him to elaborate on that. "... 'Strictly speaking'?"

"Physical ammunition has been obsolete for a few years now. This gun obviously predates the change, but Cid was bored one day and retrofitted it as a proof of concept... Ah, here we are," he added, retrieving something that looked an awful lot like an ordinary magazine.

"I see," Rachel said. "By which I mean that explained absolutely nothing."

Leon shook his head. "This is an aetheroconverter," he said, handing the device to Rachel. "It converts latent aether in the air into ammunition. As the name implies."

"... Right." _So much for conservation of mass, apparently._ "So, what, I just put this in like a normal magazine and it gives me unlimited ammo?"

"Not exactly unlimited," Leon said. "That can hold 16 rounds worth of aether, and once it's depleted it takes about an hour to recharge. Depending on... everything."

"That's definitely better than this particular gun gets with physical rounds," Rachel said.

"And far more than most people ever use. But if you're going to get serious about fighting Heartless with this thing, I'll see if Cid can put together some extras. And you can recharge it quicker with your own magic, if you need to. That said..." Leon gestured to the target dummy, a good distance away from Rachel. "Show us what you've got. For real, this time."

"Right..." Rachel loaded the aetheroconverter into the pistol, but turned back towards Leon, keeping the pistol pointed downwards, with her finger off the trigger. "Do I need to chamber a round, still?" Rachel asked. Leon nodded his head, and Rachel turned back, and tenderly racked the slide, chambering a round into the gun. "Just making sure."

_Huh. Seems easier than it should be. Is the hammer self-cocking on this thing? Either they've modified this particular gun, or their 1911 design isn't __**exactly**_ _the same as ours... Oh, well. Here goes..._

Rachel stared down the model Heartless being used as a training dummy, still attached to the steel pole. It wasn't anything like a cardboard cutout, it was in fact a three-dimensional model. Rachel didn't bother wondering why they didn't use flat targets, and quickly assumed a shooting stance, her feet shoulder-width apart, as Jules had taught her previously, back when she'd trained her in the use of semi-automatic pistols.

_I'm gonna make you proud, Jules..._

Rachel took aim at the target, both her hands on the pistol, with both her thumbs forward, as if the dummy was personally responsible for all the suffering she had gone through, let alone the suffering that her friends must be going through.

_Don't jerk the trigger, Rachel. Pace yourself. Just give it a steady squeeze. _Jules's words echoed through Rachel's head. Rachel followed suit, and quickly put five rounds into the torso of the dummy, followed by two to the head. _If you absolutely need to kill someone, don't settle for shooting them in the head just once. Do it twice._ Jules's words echoed once again.

As Rachel had fired, a small, modest, blue glow had erupted from the barrel of her gun, releasing the aether bullet, and casting it through the air towards its target, leaving a fine trail of dim blue light in its wake. After Rachel had fired the seven shots, she pointed the pistol back down to the floor and mused at how it kind of looked like she had been shooting lasers from the pistol.

"Good, Rachel. Good shooting. You really did a number on that target, actually." Leon noted. "Now, let's talk about manually recharging that thing. Take out the aetheroconverter, and pass it to me." He asked. Rachel swiftly ejected the magazine and passed it to Leon, who held it where Rachel could clearly see.

"Now, watch. As you let your magic flow into the aetheroconverter, you can see the meter fill up, see there?" Leon pointed to said meter, which appeared to be where one would usually find a space cut out of a regular magazine to see the bullets inside, and how many were left. "That's to stop you from over-filling it. It'll also vibrate gently when it's full, so even without looking, you'll know when you can reload the gun and keep shooting, should you ever need to."

Leon finished charging the now full aetheroconverter and handed it back to Rachel. "Now, lock and load that back into place. You'll notice it tells you how many shots you've got left via that meter on the grip, there."

Rachel locked the aetheroconverter back into place, then turned the gun over slightly to see what he was referring to and noticed a display with numerous segmented white rectangles, each presumably indicating a single shot each. "How much does it take to fill this thing all the way up?"

Leon shrugged. "It varies. Some people are better with this sort of thing than others, like how some people are good with fire magic, some are good with ice, and some are good with magic in general. Although, it'll take more aether the faster you fill it up, so if you want to save on aether, pace yourself, and don't rush it."

Leon moved over towards a switch on the wall. "Now, let's move from _basic_ targets to more... _Advanced_ targets." He pressed the switch, and as if by instinct alone, Rachel's head snapped forwards where the initial training dummy had been, and after a brief pause, A much more active model of a Soldier Heartless jumped up from the ground, as if out of nowhere.

"_Ah!_"

Rachel quickly raised the pistol, and shot the oncoming Heartless until it was outright removed from existence. It was followed by two more, which attempted to flank around Rachel, but were quickly felled by bullets spat from Rachel's pistol with aplomb. Another tried to jump into the air, possibly to latch onto Rachel's upper half, but she quickly shot it out of the air, pumping extra shots into it once it was grounded to make sure it wouldn't get back up.

Rachel kept dropping the targets where she saw them, her eyes darting left and right as fast as lightning-like she was in some kind of frenzied trance. She could swear she felt Jules's hands on her shoulders, both offering support, and turning her towards the targets, as she snapped onto them each, in turn, firing on each and every single one, eliminating them all with a strange kind of ruthless efficiency, absolutely bereft of hesitation.

Suddenly, as Rachel took aim at one more, the gun suddenly went *click*, as Rachel's ammunition supply finally ran dry. Rachel's eyes darted from the magazine to the remaining target approaching her, and she backed away a few paces. As the target lunged, Rachel attempted to smack the target with the pistol in a desperate defense, but as she smacked it away, it suddenly fizzled out of reality, as Leon switched off the targets altogether.

Rachel pushed the button to release the aetheroconverter, and then a few seconds late finally realized the simulation was stopped. "Oh, we're done now?"

"I would say you've proved your competence, yes," Leon said.

"Okay, cause I kinda thought you wanted to see me having to recharge this thing in a combat situation," she said, holding her hand to the device and watching the meter flow up. And the glowing blue veins spread from her hand. "This _again_?"

Leon frowned. "That's really weird... I hope Yen Sid has _some_ kind of relevant knowledge."

"Hold on," Yuffie interrupted, "was it just me or were those shots just absolutely _wrecking_ the targets? Like I've seen this thing in action before, and it was definitely less... impactful."

"Wait, you saw it too?" Leon said. "I thought I was just... Well. That's interesting."

"_Interesting_," Rachel repeated. _This isn't some RPG, a gun shouldn't care whose hands it's in... I say to a pair of characters from some RPG._

"Given that your world is more familiar with guns," Yuffie mused, "I wonder if maybe your aether is carrying that over and that's why it's dealing more damage?"

"Hmm," Rachel hmm'd skeptically. "I realize we're talking about literal magic here, but that sounds _super_ pseudoscientific." She shook her head. "But, y'know, what do I know about physics anymore."

"Rachel, this weapon obviously speaks to you!" Yuffie declared. "It's like I said earlier — you need a weapon that connects with you like an extension of your very being!"

"I still have no idea what you're talking about..." Rachel muttered. "But never mind. This _is_ definitely the most suitable weapon for me in the entire building. Is it okay if I borrow this, then?"

"As far as I'm concerned, you can keep it," Leon said. "You're probably better off with it than me. I'll grab a holster for you real quick."

"In the meantime," Yuffie said, "maybe you should try practicing with the tanto?" She turned to Leon and gave him a pleading look.

"I'm not gonna be occupied _that_ long, I'm not even leaving the room." Leon said. Yuffie continued with the look until Leon sighed in annoyance. "Fine, _yes_, you can work the controls. Don't lose your mind about it."

"_Yesss!_" Yuffie exclaimed, pumping her fist excitedly.

Rachel boggled. "What even... is this thing you're so darn excited about?"

"It's the training sim, silly!" Yuffie declared.

Rachel groaned, annoyed. "I gathered _that_ much. Why are you so... _excited_ to work the controls?" This question went entirely ignored by Yuffie, who positioned herself behind the controls, rubbing her hands with glee, and tenderly laying her hands upon the controls.

Yuffie pressed a few buttons, calling Rachel towards her side with a wave of her hand in order to get her out of the way, as a bunch of Soldiers appeared. Yuffie then summoned another Soldier, this one in tanned yellow colours as opposed to dark blues and purples, which promptly jumped into the air, and drop-kicked one of the other Soldiers, Once it had landed amongst the group of other Soldiers, they all tried to attack the Soldier Yuffie was seemingly controlling, only to be slashed to ribbons by a deadly spin attack. More Soldiers appeared, which Yuffie dealt with by directing her enthralled Soldier to kick and slash with all that it had.

"See? It's cool, it's so fancy, and you can do so much stuff! Like — watch this!" Yuffie exclaimed, as she made the Soldier Heartless suddenly start breakdancing, spinning on its back, causing it to barrel through the other Soldiers, causing them to get knocked around like bowling pins.

"... I guess it is _kinda_ cool," Rachel admitted. "But the purpose of this exercise is training, right?"

"That it is," Yuffie said, directing a Soldier model to collect the tanto from where Rachel had set it down. It scampered over, tenderly lifted the blade from where it was placed, and moved surprisingly gracefully towards the center of the room. Yuffie gently pushed Rachel out towards it, and as she approached in her own awkward manner, the Soldier fell to its knees, and held the blade aloft in both hands, like a squire presenting a knight with their sword.

Still more confused than anything, Rachel took the blade from the technically-not-a-Heartless and then stared blankly for a few seconds. "Um... You are dismissed, Squire... uh," she trailed off mid-melodramatic gesture as she suddenly realized that nobody had ever told her that Soldiers are called that. "... Squire." _I really need to be more careful,_ she thought to herself, _one of these times I'm not gonna catch myself in time..._

Yuffie giggled. "Okay, not where I thought you'd go with that. I was thinking you'd, like... take a practice swing on it."

Rachel frowned. "That seems mean... it's not exactly attacking me or anything. All it did was bring me my weapon and then just stand there."

"It's... um." Yuffie frowned very loudly. "You do know it's not... like, a person, right? It's a Heartless — actually, not even a Heartless, a magical construct that kinda resembles one."

"I know!" Rachel exclaimed defensively. "I just... it seems like too much, y'know? Like... it's not even training, in this context."

Yuffie sighed, sounding slightly annoyed. "Rachel... Look at me, Rachel."

Rachel looked over toward Yuffie, making a small distressed noise. "Do I have to...?"

"Well — only a little bit. This is important." Yuffie paused briefly. "The thing is... you can't go around feeling bad about killing Heartless. They're mindless killing machines, and also sometimes killing them brings back the person they used to be? So like, killing Heartless is _negative_ murder, really."

"It's not — that's not actually why — "

"Also," Yuffie continued, "if you don't take them out, they might jump you from behind later."

Rachel shrieked as she suddenly felt the Soldier model land on her and cling to her back. She spun around ineffectually a few times before finally gathering the presence of mind to grab the model by its claws and pry it off, flinging it to the ground and stabbing it with the tanto until it faded away in a puff of magic.

Rachel sat there for a moment catching her breath, while Yuffie looked on, trying not to laugh too hard. "... See what I mean?" Yuffie said.

Rachel groaned. "Yuffie... I _already know_ not to turn my back on _real_ Heartless... they invaded my world, remember? I've... 'fought' them," she said, making massive sarcasm quotes around 'fought', "I know they're ruthless."

"She has a point, Yuffie," Leon said, tossing Rachel two belts, "All you're really teaching her by doing it like that is not to trust _you_."

"Ehhhhh?" Yuffie seemed entirely baffled by this.

"I do understand what you're trying to get across," Rachel said. "Like... yeah, I gotta keep my eyes open and stuff." She looked down at the belts and their attached holsters, one for the pistol and one for the tanto. _Two belts? Am I becoming a Nomura character already?_ "This may not actually be the scenario, but it's still true."

"Don't actually try to wear both of those," Leon said, noticing Rachel's confusion. "The holsters come off the belts, so just... adjust it how you like."

"R- right," Rachel said, "that makes much more sense." She spent a few minutes fiddling with the belts until she had the pistol holstered on her right hip and the tanto sheathed on her left. After a few seconds, the holsters gave a small glow, like an invisible ribbon-like band had suddenly lit up.

"Huh?"

"Oh, don't mind that, that's just some magic stuff." Yuffie explained without truly explaining anything. "It's just stuff to make them work with the weapons better, stuff that'll help you draw and return weapons better without having to look, stuff like that. Shouldn't cause you any problem."

"...Huh." Rachel decided to try holstering and unholstering the weapons, noting that the holsters seemed to not only grip onto the weapons when needed, but also release said grip when needed. Drawing and holstering felt surprisingly smooth. "... Magic stuff."

"Okay!" Yuffie declared. "Training time for real, now!" She turned back to the control panel and mashed a bunch of buttons. "Don't get distracted!"

"What—" Rachel turned around and saw another Heartless leaping at her. Rachel quickly threw a punch, knocking it back and more than staggering it for a moment, until it was able to right itself, and leap again. By this time, Rachel had quickly unsheathed her blade, and quickly slashed through the inky flesh of the offender, which quickly dissipated.

"Okay, so you can swing it. How about _this_?"

Two more Soldiers appeared, stretching out to their full height as opposed to hunching over, which caught Rachel off-guard, making her note how tall they actually were, in person.

_Holy crap_, she thought, _they're huge! Why is everything so huge?_

The soldier on Rachel's left slowly closed in, before going for a slash from below, going across Rachel's torso, if she hadn't quickly side-stepped and half-turned, her shoulder facing the enemy, the arm attached to said shoulder gripping the tanto, and making a quick slash across the Soldier's body. Rachel quickly half-turned again to be facing the enemy head-on, and delivered another slash with her now outstretched arm, before thrusting the blade downwards and stabbing through the Soldier's head, sending it reeling, falling to the ground, where it dissolved.

_On the bright side, I definitely don't feel like __**I'm**_ _freakishly tall anymore..._

The other Soldier then moved on Rachel, lunging forwards, thrusting a claw outwards. Rachel nimbly slashed at the claw, parrying the attack, and cut it down with another few swings of her tanto, and a good kick.

All of a sudden, Rachel heard something materialize above her. She looked up, to see an Air Soldier, of all things. She barely had any time to react before the thing came barreling down, foot extended, in a clear attempt to land an aerial flying kick on her. Rachel quickly leaned out of the way, before swinging her body around, her arm outstretched and delivering a slash across the Air Soldier, damaging the wing. Rachel gingerly advanced on the downed creature, and promptly stabbed it until it was gone.

She quickly looked around for further enemies, and relaxed slightly (_after_ remembering to look up) seeing that there weren't any.

"Hm," Yuffie hm'd. "No training, huh?"

"No formal training with a blade, no," Rachel said. "I'm sure I could do a lot better, but... well, it's not exactly a deeply technical subject, just to do adequately." She looked at the blade, briefly expecting that she'd need to clean it, but didn't see anything on it at all — it seemed that Heartless, or else their magical models, didn't leave traces. "I'm sure some of my practice in unarmed self-defense transfers, too..."

"Speaking of things you do have training in," Leon segued with the subtlety of a ton of bricks, "Since you seem to be more familiar with your pistol, you should probably rely on that over the blade."

Yuffie looked between Leon and Rachel. "Well... Yeah, he's right, but you should probably keep that blade on you, you know? You never know when something might get too close, or when you'll run out of bullets, right?" Leon nodded his head in agreement.

Rachel nodded, sheathing the blade and taking out the pistol to examine it again — keeping the barrel carefully pointed away from anyone, as usual. "Definitely good to have a backup, yeah. Still, I think I'm gonna rely on the gun. Lets me stay away from..." She trailed off suddenly. _Am I hearing footsteps?_

_**BANG!**_

Time almost seemed to come to a stop. In an instant and an eternity, Rachel had the gun pointed at whoever was bursting through the door — though she noted with some confusion that there didn't seem to be any Heartless...?

"Holy crap?!"

"Whoa, whoa, chill out, Rachel!"

"Rachel, that's Sora!"

The world came back into focus and Rachel realized what was going on. Sora was standing in the doorway, hands held out placatingly. The gun in her hands was pointed at him. Which was bad. Carefully, she lowered the weapon and returned it to its holster. "... Sorry about that. I'm a bit... high-strung right now."

"No kidding!" Sora declared, relaxing a bit now that he didn't have a weapon pointed at him. "Guess that'll teach me to go around kicking doors in, huh?"

"Yeah, maybe don't do that..." Rachel mumbled, trailing off as she looked back up at Sora. _That's Sora. The real, actual Sora. Keyblade Jesus, as I keep calling him because I find it humorous. ... And he's visibly out of breath?_ "... you all right there?"

"M... mostly," he said. "Just, a bit winded..." Sora bent down, placing his hands on his knees, and huffed and puffed whatever air he could gather into his lungs. He looked up at Rachel, his face very visibly reddened, and tried to give a reassuring smile. It didn't work. "Just had to... run around a bit to find you..."

"A _bit_?" Yuffie said incredulously. "You look like you just ran a marathon or two!"

"I dunno, maybe I did!" Sora managed in-between breaths. "I forget how long a marathon is, though..."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "Why were you running around so much, anyway? Master Yen Sid did tell you we were here, right?"

"I... yeah, normally, but I, uh," Sora paused a moment, still out of breath. "I misplaced the map last time I was here..."

Leon shook his head, exasperated. "Again? Hopeless..." He headed over to Sora and handed him a folded-up thing of paper. "You're lucky I always keep one on hand, you know."

Rachel could almost hear the 'Item get!' chime in the back of her mind. "Oh! Actually, can I get a map too?"

"Hm?" Leon turned to face Rachel. "Ah, I mean... I would, but I only have the one."

"Oh, that's fine, I don't need the physical object," Rachel said, pulling out her phone. "I can take a picture!"

"Oh! Yeah, that could work." Leon headed over to a table to lay the map out. "It's only the central area — everything else changes too much to have regular maps of — but still, that's better than nothing."

"Ooh, ooh, can I?" Yuffie exclaimed excitedly.

"It's... _really_ not that exciting.." Rachel mumbled. Suddenly she realized just what she had said. "Hm. Y'know what?" She re-locked her phone briefly to activate a feature she had set up ages ago without ever seriously thinking she'd need. "Yeah, you can take the pictures. _Don't_ drop it." She handed the phone over to Yuffie, making a point of showing the grip by which she had been holding it. "It's not as fragile as an iPhone, but it'll still crack if you drop it too far."

"Hm. You okay with her being able to just go through all your stuff?" Leon asked.

"I _wouldn't_ be okay with that," Rachel said, "if that was a thing she could do. But she's only got access to the safest stuff, right now."

"Also," Sora interrupted, his hand hovering in front of him slightly. "um... are you _okay_, Rachel?"

"Um..." Rachel thought about that for a moment. _My world just ended. My friends are missing, possibly dead. This is apparently so stressful that my brain decided to create an __**entire additional person**__, who was briefly comforting but is currently incommunicado for cryptic reasons. ... Also, I somehow __**only just now**_ _noticed that Sora, __**Kingdom Key Sora**__, is addressing me by name._ "... define 'okay'."

Sora smiled weakly. "Yeah, that's about how I felt, too..." He turned towards the others. "So... just how bad are things?" he asked quietly.

Since Yuffie was currently occupied, Leon answered the question. "Not good. We've got a whole lot of people coming in, and it doesn't seem like all of them made it here alive."

"Not all of them...?" Sora looked taken aback. "But — how does that _happen_? I thought someone couldn't _get_ here without being strong-willed enough to survive!"

Leon continued, as Rachel withdrew, both figuratively and literally, from the conversation. "We saw a whole bunch of bodies make it here, but none of them had any aether in 'em, not a drop, until we came across one that had just a bit left, but was leaking it." Leon explained. "It seems like something caused all these guys to lose all their aether, before they made it here."

A somber look fell over Sora's face. "So that's how it is..."

"Not everyone who made it here survived, but plenty did," Leon elaborated, prompting a relieved look from Sora, "and by plenty, I mean it. Tons and tons of survivors have been pouring in, and keeping things orderly hasn't been easy. There were so many of them that Traverse Town itself has expanded outwards by what looks like more than double the normal size. I think there's even a 15th District, now..."

"_Fifteen_?!" Sora exclaimed. "Last I was here, there were only five! ... And two of them might not have been real!" he added, remembering that the last time he was in Traverse Town had been in a dream world.

"And then, there's Rachel here." Leon started back up again, looking over at Rachel with a somewhat weary look on his face. "I don't know what's going on with her, but when we found her, she was leaking aether too, but there was something constantly refilling her aether, keeping her alive, somehow." Leon turned towards where Rachel was standing. "Do you know what that's about?"

"Again, no," Rachel said, sounding mildly exasperated, "I have _absolutely no idea_ what this mysterious aether source is."

_Sheesh, I can take a hint!_ Sora thought. _So she __**is**_ _keeping quiet about the Keyblade, then..._

"You were in her world, Sora," Leon said, prompting a look from Rachel that Sora missed, his eyes suddenly locked on Leon. "did you notice anything that might be a clue?"

"Umm..." Sora froze. _Didn't think that'd be tested so quickly!_ He glanced around frantically, looking for a distraction, and spotted Yuffie playing around with Rachel's phone. "Hey, Yuffie, you done with that map or what?"

"Weh?" Yuffie looked over, startled. "Um, oh, yeah! I was just, uh..."

Rachel sighed. "I'd like my phone back now, please..." She stiffly held out her hands towards Yuffie. _I knew she was gonna do that, but I'm... mildly annoyed about it anyway._

"R-right!" Yuffie said awkwardly, picking up the map and delivering both objects to their appropriate recipients. "I just wanted to figure out how to make it play that song again..."

"Of course you did..." Rachel tapped the power button twice and unlocked the phone back into its normal mode. "I didn't set music to be available in guest mode," _for reasons I'm not going to remind you of_, she thought, blushing slightly, "but for future reference, the music app is this one, with the double eighth note."

"Guest mode!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Ooh, sneaky..."

"I mean, not _that_ sneaky," Rachel said, "the background is completely different... well, never mind." _She's not gonna follow any of that._ "In any case, if you wanna hear the song again, I can certainly play it. Or a _different_ song, even. There are lots of songs on here."

"Play a song?" Sora asked, confused. "Oh, are you some kind of musician, Rachel?"

For about a second, it seemed like Rachel hadn't heard him, as she was completely still and expressionless, until she burst out laughing. "Me, a musician? That's adorable. No."

"Hey, it was a reasonable guess in context!" Sora protested, until Rachel raised her hand a little, showing that she was holding a mysterious device of some kind "...Wait, what's that you've got there?"

"_This_ is what's going to play the music," Rachel said. Sora belatedly noticed that Yuffie was still watching the device eagerly as though it was the hottest new television show. "What do you think, Sora, should I play the same song or a different one?"

"I... don't know?" Sora responded, baffled. "I didn't hear the first song."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm asking you," Rachel said. "You're perfectly unbiased."

"I don't think that makes sense..." Sora mumbled. "But, uhh, I guess a different song? Maybe something like, uh... what kind of music does... that thing know, anyway?"

Rachel took a quick glance at the list of songs stored in the device. "I couldn't _begin_ to coherently describe my musical taste." _Trance, video game music, whatever I stumble across on the internet, and whatever my friends send me. I wouldn't want to say that to a regular person, much less an actual video game character..._ "I've probably got _something_ to match whatever you ask for."

"Um, in that case... er..." Sora paused a moment, dithering.

"Oh, just pick a song at random, Rachel!" Yuffie exclaimed.

Rachel suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Right. Random." She flicked through her music library, deliberately not looking very hard at the names that scrolled by, and tapped a song at random. As soon as Rachel tapped the song, an organic tone from some kind of classical instrument rang out, followed by a low, hum-like tone from a female voice, itself followed by a light piano melody. This lasted for approximately 20 seconds, before a woman started to sing about darkness, and being lost within it.

Rachel checked the screen, which named the song playing: "Somewhere" by Within Temptation.

As the song played, an orchestra gradually started to join the singer, Sharon den Adel, as she sang about her search for someone, whoever they may be. Rachel couldn't help but note the poetic uses of the words "darkness", "heart", and "soul", among other things, as she stood still where she was, stiff as a girder.

Leon simply stood off to the side, silently contemplating something known to himself, and himself alone. Yuffie couldn't help but feel like she wanted something with more 'rock' to it. Sora thought back to how he felt when Riku and Kairi were torn from him, time and time again. Rachel simply remained dumbfounded at how improbably appropriate the lyrics were.

"This is a good song," Sora said, quietly so as not to disturb anyone's listening experience.

"It is, yes," Rachel replied. "So, um... what exactly brought you dashing here like the hordes of darkness were hot on your heels?"

Sora blinked. "Oh! Well, um..." _She knows stuff, for some reason... maybe she'll understand this?_ "I spotted a Corridor of Darkness as I landed here. I think someone's up to something."

Rachel frowned. "I don't know what that is," she lied, "but if someone's up to something, why are we just... hanging around here?"

Sora shrugged. "Honestly, they're most likely after me," _or even more likely you, actually, but I can't say that where I might be overheard_, he thought, "so I figure, as long as I'm here, I won't miss anything important. It's real hard to keep track of people who can use those things, anyway, so going after them... that wouldn't work."

"I see," Rachel muttered. "And... well, how sure are you that they aren't after the many, many refugees?"

Sora frowned. "Not.. _that_ sure, I guess. They've got _someone_ watching them, though, right?"

"Aerith, mostly," Leon said, startling both of them with his sudden appearance. "Merlin's... _around_, too, usually," he added, waving his hand vaguely to indicate 'around'.

"And if something happened, they'd radio us," Rachel said. "... Right?"

"Assuming nothing's stopping them," Leon said.

Rachel frowned very loudly. "That sounds... less safe than it could be."

"It's as safe as we can get with how few people we've got," Leon said. "Why are we talking about something possibly happening with the refugees?"

"I spotted a Corridor of Darkness as I landed here," Sora said again. "Which is an obvious problem, but also one that's kinda hard to chase after."

"Mm," Leon thought about that. "Can't hurt to check on 'em."

"And get something to eat after that!" Sora exclaimed. "I haven't had a meal since I woke up!"

"A proper meal does sound super great," Rachel said. "I think the last proper meal I had was..." _... before Kingdom Hearts III got cancelled. What the hell. __**There's**_ _a frame of reference that exists._ "... before I woke up here. But—"

"Geez, that long?" Sora said. "We _definitely_ need to get some food in you before we do anything important."

Rachel stared at Sora for several seconds, trying to figure out an objection to that. His insistence that food comes before "important" things made her first thought of _doesn't this Dark Corridor stuff seem like something we should be paying attention to?!_ seem unlikely to be useful. "I... can't exactly buy food. Like... I don't imagine the people around here even know what a US dollar is, much less want to take it as payment."

"Normally the Moogles would be willing to buy your currency," Leon said, "just as a curiosity, but under the current circumstances, they might have put a hold on that..."

"Oh, don't worry about _that_," Sora reassured, "I've got plenty of munny to cover Rachel with. The _really_ important question here is, where to?"

"Ooh, Starlight Grill!" Yuffie exclaimed. "They've got this great thing with veggies and stuff!"

"Starlight Grill is good," Sora said, "_but_ I went there last time I was here."

"There's always Cho-Ko-Burger," Leon said.

"Pff, boring!" Yuffie said. "There's that new noodle place, the..." She snapped her fingers, trying to recall its name. "You know, that new noodle place! Over across from the other thing?"

"That's completely useless, thanks," Leon said.

Sora hmm'd, looking through the map of Traverse Town. "Ooh! There's also Kabuki Cafe!" He paused. "Say, what do you think, Rachel?"

Rachel boggled. _But... chocobos are birds? ... I don't think I want to know._ "I don't know any of these places. Maybe we can check on the refugees first and decide later?"

"We probably shouldn't waste time standing around here," Leon admitted.

"We can walk and talk!" Sora said.

"Then let's do that!" Yuffie said, immediately bounding towards the door. "Ooh, maybe I can just _bring_ you to the noodle place..."

* * *

Several confusing minutes later, Rachel (dragged by Yuffie) had looked through slightly less than a third of the field hospital and not seen any suspicious individuals anywhere.

_It might have been slightly more efficient if Yuffie had let go of my wrist at any point after we got here,_ Rachel thought, only vaguely noticing Yuffie's chatter.

"... I think the noodle place is thataway-ish? Now that we've checked over everything, or we should have anyway if Leon and Sora didn't slack off. But yeah, my vote is for the noodle place."

"I found nothing," Leon said, arriving at their designated meeting spot with very precisely narratively convenient timing. "Have you spent this _entire_ time yammering about the noodle place?"

"Don't be silly, Leon!" Yuffie said. "I did lots of other things while you weren't looking."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed. "We looked for suspicious individuals! We checked on the patients still in the field hospital! I even tenderly took Rachel by the hand the whole way so she didn't get scared, or fall behind and get lost, or anything!"

"...Really." Leon said. "And did you go on and on about the noodle place the whole time?"

"Wha?! No!" Yuffie sounded mildly offended. "We talked about all kinds of things! We talked about how important constant vigilance is! We talked about the pros and cons of various weapon types! We talked about how quiet Rachel was being!"

"...You mean, _you_ talked about how quiet Rachel was being?" Leon responded, uncertain.

"...Yeah." The three of them stood there awkwardly for a moment. "Oh, hey, there's Sora!" Yuffie exclaimed in a desperate hope of cutting through the tension. "And also Aerith!"

"Hey guys!" he called to them, waving. "I found Aerith!" he added redundantly.

Aerith waved as well, looking slightly completely lost as to what was going on.

"... Did you tell her what we're doing?" Leon asked.

"He didn't," Aerith said, giving an exhausted-looking smile.

"We're looking for anyone suspicious around here," Yuffie said, "and then we're gonna grab food at..." She trailed off. "...uh, somewhere! We haven't decided yet! Sora, did you see anyone?" Sora shook his head. "Cool! Food, then! I think I know how to get to the noodle place from here..."

"Oh, is that what you agreed on?" Aerith asked, a knowing tone in her voice.

Yuffie faltered, knowing full well that no agreement had been settled on, on account of how she had literally said exactly that approximately eight seconds ago. "Well, uh..." ...

...

"... Well. Y'know." Yuffie said weakly.

Rachel groaned. _Are we going to be stuck in this argument for all eternity?_ She gave Aerith a pleading look.

"... Say, what kind of food does your world have, Rachel?" Aerith asked.

"It's... a big world," Rachel responded. "There's lots of different kinds of food." _Noooooo this isn't resolving the argument, we're just getting distracted with a new topic..._

"Is that so? My first thought was to suggest something similar to what you had back home, but if that doesn't narrow it down any..." Aerith trailed off.

"I mean, _back home_ narrows it down," Rachel said. "Like I said. Big world. I haven't been to most of it." She paused for thought. "I guess, the nearby food places had things like... burgers and stuff, pancakes and stuff, tacos and stuff, coffee and stuff..." She frowned. "'And stuff' is probably meaningless to you, huh? Like, even if you recognize those foods," she said, belatedly realizing that the only food she could remember seeing in the entire _Kingdom Hearts_ franchise was ice cream, "you'll have no concept for what... goes with them, I guess." _Like, they don't have a Texas or a Mexico, how would they know what's Tex-Mex and what isn't?_ She sighed, shaking her head. "This is unhelpful. How about we just go to the nearest place that isn't garbage?"

At this point, a light bulb did not spontaneously appear over Aerith's head with a _ding!_, but you'd be hard-pressed to prove that. "Well! I know a place nearby with a cozy, peaceful atmosphere, and the food is definitely good too."

"That," Rachel said, "sounds like a _very _good place to go."

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "Things that go at the bottom of the page"...**_

... I have neither deleted scene nor promotion today, so here's some rambling: For the bit with "Somewhere", James also suggested "Lifelight" from Smash Ultimate, but we realized it would have been anachronistic. ... Well, I _was_ tempted to use it anyway (reminder that this fic technically takes place in an alternate timeline where I have carte blanche to do such things!) but "Somewhere" worked better anyway.


	9. Getting Gear, Getting Going (Part Two)

ATUHOR'S NOSE: ... 24 is totally "a few", right?

Quick note, I did a typo when editing the last chapter and accidentally cut off every paragraph containing the word "music". If you remember seeing that word, you've already read the fixed version — if not, go back and do a quick CTRL+F to see what you missed. (It's... an embarrassingly large amount.) Also, apropos of _definitely absolutely nothing_, here's a _totally completely random_ reminder that the AO3 mirror is the canonical one and due to differing site rules and culture some things won't appear here. The music links, obviously, but other stuff too.

* * *

Once upon a time, a woman named Tiana had found herself in Traverse Town.

The woman had found herself dazed and confused, as are many people when they find themselves outside their own home world for the first time.

Unlike some others, she had managed to pull herself together, to a degree. Taking inspiration from the plight of those in her situation, and her own skills as an established restaurateur, she opened an establishment called Tiana's Tavern, specifically to provide a calming atmosphere, and to cater to any poor unfortunate souls who found themselves in the dire situation Tiana was once in.

It was that very same tavern that Rachel found herself in now.

She was looking over the menu and thinking sternly to herself, _Order something other than a burger this time_, though she suspected it was futile. Still, she would make a point of at least taking the decision seriously. Sora's eyes were scrolling through the seafood section of the menu, Aerith was looking through the salads, Leon seemed to have his heart set on some ribs, and Yuffie was... holding the menu upside-down.

Rachel frowned at Yuffie.

"What? I already know what I want."

"Okay, but why are you holding the menu upside-down?" Rachel asked, confused.

"Classified ninja secret!"

Rachel just shook her head, and returned her gaze to her own menu, namely the section on burgers. If she recalled _The Princess and the Frog_ correctly — which she was unsure of, not having actually watched that film — Tiana was from New Orleans, which was in America. Which made her restaurant American style, or at least the closest it was possible to get to that, now that the real America was gone. Which made it very probable that this restaurant currently served the _literal best burgers available in the entire multiverse_.

"But I _always_ get a burger..." Rachel whined quietly to herself.

"Then get something different this time, if that bothers you," Sora replied. "Like that 'gumbo' stuff. I haven't tried it, but if it's 'authentic New Orleans cuisine'," here he pointed out that phrase in the description of the item on his menu, "this is probably the best place left to get it in the entire multiverse."

Rachel looked back at the menu thoughtfully. _I suppose the logic does apply to __**any**_ _American-style food served here, not just burgers._

"Don't agonize too much about whether you're getting the same thing again," Aerith said. "You've been under a lot of stress lately, so it's mostly just important that you eat _something_."

Rachel groaned. "Telling me not to agonize is just gonna make me agonize more..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone and tapped at its screen a few times before frowning. "Oh yeah, the network doesn't exist anymore..."

"Were you gonna... call someone?" Sora asked confusedly, vaguely aware that the music-playing device was also a phone.

Rachel glanced at her phone in confusion. "Who would I...? No, I was just gonna flip a coin. A _virtual_ coin," she added at Sora's look of enhanced confusion, "but with the network gone, I don't have access to — wait." She facepalmed and reached into her pocket to pull out an actual, physical coin. "I forgot I got change the other day..." She tossed the coin into the air — "heads burger, tails gumbo," — caught it, and flipped it onto the back of her other hand. "... Y'know what, no." She put the coin back in her pocket.

"No?" Sora asked.

"The coin came up tails," Rachel said, "but... I'm too hungry to be experimental this time." _It's not like I'm never going to come here again, after all..._ She shuddered. _Gods. I'm stuck out here indefinitely. That's... a thing that's true._

A few minutes later, after everyone had ordered their meal, Rachel pulled out her phone again.

"So..." Sora asked, "I've been meaning to ask about that..."

Rachel glanced at Sora and back to her phone. "My phone? What about it?"

"Well, a _lot_ of things," Sora said, "but for starters... you call it a phone, but it seems like you've done everything _except_ call someone with it."

Rachel laughed. "Not even close to _everything_, but I see what you mean..." She looked at the device in her hand. "It's funny, now that I think about it. It's called a phone, but calling people is the _last_ thing I was thinking of when I got it. In fact, I don't think I've made a call with this thing in my entire life." She tapped the device against her head thoughtfully. "Really, it's more like a very small computer."

Sora boggled. "A... computer? I don't know much about computers, but..." He gestured vaguely with his hands, indicating a volume approximately the size of the entire table. "That's... that, and that's..." He pointed to the phone.

Rachel shrugged. "I'm told computers used to be the size of entire rooms, yeah. I don't recall offhand how they got them this small, other than finding a replacement for vacuum tubes..." _Which I still don't remember what they're for in the first place._ "Yuffie said Tron could help with that, though."

"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Remember the fancy matter-scanning laser the computer used to upload you into Space Paranoids? I figured, if we used that to scan Rachel's phone, we could look at all the tiny little details and figure out how it works!"

Sora tilted his head in thought. "Hm... Yeah, I think that makes sense. Does that mean we're going to try to make more of them?"

Rachel shrugged. "I imagine you could do a _lot_ of things with my phone's technology." _Kingdom Hearts 1 has.. what, mid-oughts level technology? I was months old at the time, but I know __**some**_ _stuff about what it was like then..._ "I'd certainly be in favor of making more of them."

Sora thought about that some more. "Wouldn't that kinda go against the whole world order thing?"

Rachel thought of a glib reply to this, before realizing that she shouldn't actually "know" what the world order was. "Uh..."

"Hmm, that's a good question," Yuffie said. "Obviously we're not messing with Rachel's world by doing this, but you'd think it goes both ways, right? Traverse Town's kind of an exception to the rules, but even so..."

Rachel boggled theatrically. _Don't overdo it..._ "Uhh, _what_?"

"Oh! Um, so, the world order..." Sora paused. "It's, uh, a thing where, uh... basically, like..."

"The worlds aren't supposed to affect each other," Leon said. "Which _normally_ means we can't let people find out other worlds exist. Traverse Town is obviously an exception to that particular rule — for obvious reasons, anyone who's here already knows about other worlds — but we still have to limit the exchange of..." he waved his hand vaguely, "...stuff."

"Stuff," Rachel repeated, unimpressed.

"Stuff," Leon repeated. "Like... it probably wouldn't be a problem to just scan your phone and help you keep it maintained. But if we started mass-producing them and handing them out to every refugee, _that_ could be bad. Not least because they might take them back home to their worlds and then your technology is affecting thousands of worlds. If there's something we failed to realize about your tech, that could have any kind of..." He waved his hand. "...unforeseen consequences."

Aerith decided to make her own case. "Those devices could be very useful, if issued in a limited capacity. I certainly can't imagine them being any _more_ annoying than the fiddly radios we're stuck with." She spoke. "But yes, we need to be careful. The consequences of worlds meddling with each other can be farther-reaching than one might immediately realize. That's what it means to keep the world order — to make sure you're not going around and single-handedly changing the course of history."

"I see," Rachel said. _I had some... opinions about the world order, but put like that, I have to admit it's not that terrible a precaution._

"Still," Sora said, "if someone's in trouble right in front of you, you can't just stand there and do nothing when you could help them." _Right?_

"Oh, sure," Leon said. "Saving one person isn't even on the same level as the kind of stuff we need to be worried about. Well, there's exceptions to that statement, but they're generally pretty obvious."

Sora nodded. "That's a good thing to know... in advance, before I have to do it." _Don't overdo it!_

"Mm-hmm," Leon hmm'd skeptically, his chin resting on his closed fist.

"S- so! About those phones!" Sora quickly said. "Or, you said it was like a small computer? Does that mean it can..."

"Yes, it can," Rachel said.

Sora stared at Rachel blankly for a moment. "I didn't even say what I was asking about."

"Doesn't matter. It's Turing-complete, if a thing can be done by a computer, it can be done by this one." Rachel paused. "... In principle, anyway. That doesn't mean I necessarily know how to _make_ it do any given thing."

Sora boggled again. "I don't get it... Is that a special feature you had to pay extra for?"

Rachel shook her head, suppressing a laugh. "No, no... Almost every computer is Turing-complete. It's actually a really low bar to clear — it only says the computer _can_ do the things, not that it'll be finished in a reasonable amount of time..."

Sora blinked a few times. "That... sure is some words you said..."

_Oh, right... This is Sora. Computers aren't his thing._ "Well. Never mind all that. How about we just demonstrate? You've seen — well, _heard_ it playing music. What's the most different thing from playing music that you can imagine a computer doing?"

Sora just tilted his head and blinked some more.

_... I don't know why I thought that'd work any better._ "Let me just pick something myself." She held out the phone so Sora could see as she flipped through the pages of her home screen.

"Oh, that's neat!" Sora remarked, leaning towards the phone so he could better see. "The way you can just flip through... uh... whatever that is. That seems easier than the way the computer in Radiant Garden had it."

Rachel nodded, vaguely remembering the retro-looking interface and the fact that it appeared to operate entirely with a keyboard. "Yeah, I don't know how — uh, how that's set up, on account of having never been to the place you refer to, but I assume it didn't have a touch screen, so it can't have been this convenient."

_Was that a hint?_ Sora thought. _If she knows about Keyblades, she might also... then again, __**how**_ _would she know about Radiant Garden?_ He did the mental equivalent of shrugging and putting a pin in that thought for later. "Yeah, it _was_ kind of a pain. I just wanted to get it to tell me where my friends were, but all it did was yell at me."

Rachel frowned. "I don't... _think_ computers can do that normally, actually. Or maybe nobody's bothered to invent that function — normally, if I wanted to find my friends, I could just send them a message and ask directly." She looked down at her phone. "... Normally. Right now, with the world gone..."

"Whoa, are you looking for your friends, then?" Sora exclaimed.

"Yeah! Or, well, kind of..." She pulled up the photo gallery and flicked through that, looking for the picture of her friends again. "So, this is them," She explained as she pointed to each of her friends in turn. "Kira, Sarah, Jules... and that one's me, obviously, but we already know where I am..."

Sora nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for them." _Is it just my imagination, or do they look kinda familiar...?_ "Do you know where they might have gotten to?"

Rachel's face fell. "Well... that's the 'kind of' part. The last time I saw them was... shortly before the world fell."

"...Oh."

There was a brief awkward pause, until Leon mercifully broke the silence. "We explained to her what usually happens when a world falls." He paused briefly. "... We didn't find them earlier, so they're probably not in Traverse Town."

"Wh— hang on!" Rachel exclaimed. "You never said anything about that!"

"I was _trying_ to mention that earlier," Leon said, planting his elbows on the table and leaning forward, "but I kinda got interrupted. If your friends had ended up here, I expect they'd have been looking for you. Most of the people here have tried to find _someone_."

Rachel's face fell, her eyes dropping to the table. "But... if they're not here..." _I won't believe they died back there, but... the only alternatives are..._ "If they washed up somewhere else... who knows what could be happening to them..."

Sora closed his eyes in thought. "Well... I know that your hearts will bring you back together."

Rachel frowned, inexplicably struck with the urge to ask if Sora actually knew what had happened to her world — which was a bit silly, seeing as not only was it common knowledge, he was one of the few people from this world who she knew to have been in a comparable scenario. "What do you _mean_ by that, though?"

Leon frowned. "What do you _mean_, what does he mean? Your hearts will bring you together. It means what it means."

"But I don't _know_ what it means!" Rachel protested. "Just saying it again doesn't —" She looked around at the table full of confused faces. "... None of you have any idea what I'm asking, do you?"

"Is this the Pri—" Yuffie cut herself short, suddenly remembering that this was a public place. "... _your home world_ being weird, again?"

"What do you mean, 'weird'?" Sora asked with a low voice, turning his head and raising an eyebrow.

"Did you know her home world just, like, straight up _does not_ _have_ magic?" Yuffie said. "It's _weird_, right?"

"I did notice that the world has no ambient magic field," Sora said, tactfully ignoring the question of whether this constitutes 'weird'. "But no magic _at all_? Surely there'd still be aether in the _people_, right?" He turned toward Rachel expectantly.

"Um... As far as I know, aether is a debunked theory about..." Rachel trailed off. "Wait, is anyone else getting deja vu? I could swear I answered a question like this pretty recently, but I can't remember..."

"Hold up," Aerith said. "_No_ ambient magic field? Merlin had suggested there might be an unusually _high_ amount of aether in the environment, but _none_?"

"But hang on — if there's no — then..." Yuffie stammered, pointing her finger to and fro, before trailing off. "Merlin said that it didn't seem like your body was capable of holding aether on its own," she said, her voice lowering along with her head. "If there's no background magic field... how do people in your world have enough aether to _live_?"

Rachel frowned. "I... I've never heard of anyone dying of 'lack of aether' before. I honestly don't think it was a thing back home. Somehow."

"Merlin also said your world might even not have the same laws of physics," Aerith said. "The..." she waved her hand. "_region_, was a closed space, and it is possible for laws of physics to be significantly changed inside a closed space. But... why would that be the case?"

Rachel glanced over at Aerith, and then down at the table, partially retreating inside herself for just a moment. Why would that be the case? Why would the laws of physics be somehow different, somehow _altered,_ inside one particular closed space, presumably one out of many, _many_ others? "I... can't even begin to imagine why..." she muttered, so quietly that only Sora could hear her.

"I think..." Sora said, his voice steady as he seemingly shivered just a little bit, "this is probably a question for someone else. Like Master Yen Sid, maybe. Cause, like... I've _been_ to the... place... and other than the lack of background magic, I don't really know anything that makes it different from any other world."

But it obviously _was_ different, Rachel knew, even if seemingly nobody knew _how_. As far as she was concerned, this 'aether' hadn't existed until she had woken up in Merlin's guest room. But after that moment, she needed it to sustain her very existence. And judging by the way the others talked, this was the default state of things. In a world so fundamentally different from her own, how could she possibly know what to expect...?

It was at approximately this point that the server arrived with everyone's food, but Rachel found she didn't feel very hungry. Despite the warm atmosphere of the tavern, Rachel had suddenly started to feel very, very cold.

* * *

An uncertain amount of time later, after (at Aerith's insistence) having forced herself to eat a reasonable amount of her food, Rachel followed the group out of the restaurant and...

...Well, that _was_ the question, wasn't it?

"So, now that we've gotten some food in us," Sora said, "it's time to handle _important_ things."

"What... important things, exactly, do you have in mind?" Rachel asked.

"_Well_," Sora said, tilting his head thoughtfully, "we've gotta deal with that creep running around with the Dark Corridor, and we've also gotta get you prepared to meet up with Master Yen Sid and learn magic..."

"And get her aether and stuff looked at too, _right_?" Leon asked sternly, just in case Sora had let his mind, (and with it, his priorities) wander. Again.

"R- right! That too!" Sora said. "But, um, the point I was making was that we could kill two birds with one stone and look around the shops — we can get Rachel prepared _and_ look for the creep at the same time."

Leon nodded. "Good thinking. If our creep isn't going after the survivors, the shops are a reasonable next guess... and we can stock up on potions and stuff while we're there."

"Um —"

"Hey, Rachel, question," Yuffie interjected, interrupting whatever Rachel was going to say. "Do you carry around a change of clothes in that backpack?"

Rachel froze for a second as her mind shifted gears. "Uh. Not _habitually_, no. I don't have one now, if that's what you're asking. But — "

"Then we'll have to pick up some more clothes for you, too!" Yuffie declared.

"I guess...?" Rachel said, increasingly bewildered. _I hadn't even thought that far ahead..._ "But, um, I'm trying to ask why you think they'll be lurking around the shops..."

"Great question!" Yuffie declared. "Pretty sure I know the answer!"

"Oh _no_..." Leon muttered, sensing the imminent torrent of complete and utter nonsensical claptrap, which prompted him to immediately turn around and walk away.

Yuffie seized Rachel by the wrist again and began following after Leon without missing a beat. "You see, if you think about it..."

...

"I gotta admit, he's got us pegged. A restaurant _is_ a type of shop, after all."

"If you cannot entirely cease your prattle, can you at least endeavor to keep the volume down to a nearly appropriate level?"

"Oh, what's the big deal, anyway? We've _got_ the barrier up!"

The other figure took a deep, exasperated breath. "Might I remind you once more that the barrier does not _destroy_ sound. That is impossible. It _scatters_ sound. It makes us _harder_ to hear. But we _are still audible_. And that is why you need to _keep your voice down_."

"All right, all right, I get it..." he muttered. ... "... Say, why are we in stalker mode today, anyway? Like, what's so darn interesting here?"

The other figure sighed. "If you cannot simply sit in silence... I believe you recognize the ones calling themselves the 'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee'?"

"Uh-huh. 'Radiant Garden', now, but yeah, I've seen 'em before."

"And have you worked out why a committee with 'Radiant Garden' in their very name is spending their valuable time here, in Traverse Town?"

"Well, obviously they're here for the bajillions of survivors that have washed up suddenly. I _thought_ that's why _we_ were here, but now you have us following this one girl around — what's so interesting about _her_?"

"... What makes you think —?"

"We're _obviously_ not following the committee around, or Roxas's other half, because neither of them is doing anything interesting today that they weren't yesterday. Except for hanging around with that girl. So, what's so interesting about her?"

"What, indeed...? Why would both Sora and the Restoration Committee dedicate their time and effort to guiding this one girl, out of all the survivors that have arrived here in the past few days? Look closely at the way they move around her, how uncomfortable she looks just being here. Observe the way Sora watches her — always wary, not at all like his usual demeanor. This is not the actions of mere 'friends' 'hanging out'. They are _protecting_ her."

"... from what, though? Us?"

"Why, were you seen?"

"What? No way!"

"Then they most likely do not know we are here."

"So... what _are_ they protecting her from? Like... any other danger around here is something _all_ the survivors would be at risk for, right? So this is something specific to her. Which brings me back to the question you keep dodging — what's so dang special about this girl?"

The other figure patted him on the shoulder condescendingly. "That is precisely what we are here to find out."

"Wha —? You mean we're just here on a _hunch_? Aw maaaaan... What a pain..."

...

Rachel looked back toward the restaurant. "Anyone else hear something, or...?"

"Not a thing," Yuffie said. "Come on, shopping time!"

"... Right. Probably my ears playing tricks on me again." Though as Yuffie pulled her off towards the First District, Rachel couldn't help but doubt.

* * *

Stocking up on potions and ethers was simple enough, though Rachel doubted if she'd need the latter.

"It's not like I'm gonna use that much magic," she told Sora as he picked up a pack of ten. "Not with the... y'know, the thing."

"The what now?" Sora said.

"The — oh, you haven't — well, I'll explain later."

"Okay... well, it's not like they'll become magically bound to you or anything if you just have them."

Rachel blinked. "Is that a real thing that happens or just a hypothetical?"

"Huh? No, it's just hypothetical, that never actually —" Sora paused, suddenly remembering one very important item that does indeed become magically bound to whoever possesses it. "... Or, well, it doesn't happen with ethers, is the point. If you don't use 'em, you can just hold on to them until someone else needs one."

"... Okay, yeah, I guess so," Rachel said, not really understanding at all. "Say, does it mean anything in particular that 'ether' sounds just like 'aether', or is it just a coincidence?"

Sora thought about that. "Good question. I've never thought about that... Do you have any idea?" He asked nobody in particular, as he jerked his shoulder in a strangely particular way, as if he'd done this numerous times before.

Rachel took a closer look, acting out of confusion, her hand moving reflexively to her glasses to get a glimpse at what was what, only to behold Jiminy Cricket hopping up onto Sora's shoulder as if such a thing was hardly a big deal.

...And it wasn't. To them, anyway. Rachel, on the other hand, was caught so off-guard by Jiminy's sudden appearance that instead of listening to whatever he had to say, she cried out in shock, lost her balance, flailed her arms wildly, and fell down. "Wha— oww! Three times! One day! This literally _never_ happened before, but now? Does the universe have it out for my — rear end, or something?" ("Rear end" was almost not the phrase she used, but it occurred to her at the last moment that she wasn't up for hearing Jiminy Cricket's thoughts on profanity.)

"Oops," Sora said, an awkward grin on his face. "Sorry, Rachel."

"Well, gee, that's the first time _that's_ happened..." the cricket said.

"You okay?" Sora asked, helping Rachel to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she grumbled, "just kinda cheesed off that this keeps happening... today."

"Never seen a talking cricket before, I take it?" Jiminy said.

"Indeed I have not..." Rachel said. "Crickets back home don't talk... or, uh, look like you do, like at all."

Jiminy nodded. "Y'know, I get that a lot. Cricket's the name, Jiminy Cricket," he said, extending a hand in greeting.

"Rachel," she responded, holding her hand in front of the cricket in confusion for a few moments before he grabbed her index finger and shook vigorously. _I'm shaking hands with a cricket. ... This isn't even the weirdest thing that's happened to me today._

Sora turned towards his shoulder. "Hey, Jiminy, any idea about the words?"

"Hm? Oh, yes!" Jiminy said, standing up straight on Sora's shoulder. "I'm not actually entirely sure, but what most people think happened is that when people from long, long ago were first deciding on what to call things, everyone was in such a rush to figure out a system that worked for everyone, that they didn't think things all the way through."

Jiminy continued, sounding somewhat uncertain of what he himself was saying. "As far as anyone can make out, everyone wanted the terms used for various things to sound similar to already existing things, and to each other, which would in theory make things easily understood by any newcomers." Jiminy went on. "But apparently, the best person for the job, being someone who knew their way with words, was a certain 'qualified poet-master' who turned out to be a bit 'doo-lally' as they say. The story goes that they focused too much on making things 'aesthetically pleasing' as opposed to actually practical, hence why we're stuck with the system we have now."

"Similar to already existing things?" Rachel asked. "Is that why you call them 'hearts' despite them not having much to do with the circulatory system?" she said, tapping the left side of her chest to indicate the blood-pumping organ.

"Yes, precisely!" Jiminy said, as Sora looked up from his shoulder at Rachel, with a strange expression on his face, as if some pieces were finally getting put together in his head.

"That certainly explains why it's all such a mess," Rachel muttered, shaking her head, as the group walked up to the cashier to ring up their purchases.

"Ready to go?" Leon called out from where he was standing, outside the store, looking for any potential trouble.

"Yeah, yeah, got everything." Sora replied, handing Leon a bag of things he'd wanted them to get him. "Seen anything?"

"Nothing worth noting, no."

...

Rachel was wondering how exactly any of the video game logic behind "accessories" mapped to reality, given that she didn't know of any "accessory slots" she could put them in or "Ability Points" for them to increase. She was also wondering how the hell she could possibly phrase that so she could ask it without sounding like she was spewing complete gibberish.

Rachel was standing in a so-called "Accessories Shop" without a clue of what to make of anything that she lay eyes on. Her new acquaintances had insisted that she step into this place, as part of what they called "getting prepared" although Rachel didn't quite understand.

She looked at the armlets, amulets, bangles, rings, necklaces, rings, studs, bands, bracelets, and chains, like she was looking at paintings in an art gallery, trying to look sophisticated and cultured, despite having no idea what she was looking at.

Eventually, she gave up, let out a defeated breath, shrugged her shoulders, and turned towards Sora. "I don't understand why I need to be here."

Sora tilted his head slightly, confused. "Well, you need accessories, don't you?"

Rachel gesticulated inarticulately. "_Maybe?_ Aerith was just really insistent, so... I don't actually know what's going on right now."

"I see..." Sora said. "Well, accessories enhance your fighting ability, obviously."

"Oh, _obviously_, right," Rachel said, annoyed. "How does that even work, anyway?"

"Uh, by magic, I'm pretty sure," Sora said.

Rachel made a strangled noise of exasperation. "That — doesn't — explain — anything!" she exclaimed, as she grit her teeth, shooting Sora a look. "First off, I didn't grow up with magic, so I don't know anything about it, and second, even if I had, 'by magic' isn't an _explanation_ any more than if I said my phone works 'by electricity'!"

Sora grinned sheepishly. "I know, but... I don't actually know how it works myself. It... channels magical energy from your body, and uh... does something..."

Rachel, having recognized that she was getting herself worked up, was trying to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. But getting completely sidetracked from the source of the annoyance worked just as well. "It channels the magical energy from my body, huh...?" She picked up the nearest accessory, which looked like some kind of cufflink, and noted that lines of blue immediately began to slowly spread from the point it contacted her skin. "... I might have to go without these, then."

"What the heck is _that_?" Sora exclaimed, as he stared at Rachel's hand, his shoulders immediately tensing up, and turning rigid.

"We're not sure," Rachel said, "but it keeps happening whenever magic interacts with my body... Or, is it when my body interacts magically with the world...? Well, like I said, we're not sure. But..."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Sora protested. "The — " And he stopped. _**Why**_ _doesn't it make sense? It's not just that I've never seen it before, there's... something in particular..._ "Well... I guess it's not important. But yeah, it might be a bad idea for you to wear an accessory that makes you glow neon blue like Tron."

Rachel just barely failed to suppress a giggle. "Heh... I don't actually know why that's funny," she lied weakly.

_Okay, I believe you,_ Sora thought, not believing her. "Well, that's not particularly important right now. If accessories are out of the question, you'll probably have to get geared up at the armor shop instead..." He took a quick look around and saw that the others were still getting their stuff. "What are combat accessories like in your world, if they're not magic?"

"Completely different," Rachel said immediately, not even having to consider it. "Like... the idea of an earring that 'boosts your defense' is completely unheard of, back home. If I were to look up what a 'combat accessory' was, I'd get things more like weapon attachments, and articles of clothing, like boots, gloves, eyewear, and things like... like this holster," she said, pointing out the holster still resting on her hip.

"Yeah, about that..." Sora said. "You sure it's a good idea to be carrying that around like that?"

Rachel looked at the gun resting securely in the holster. "Why wouldn't it be? Leon's got his gunblade. You've got your Keyblade. Yuffie's got her... comically oversized shuriken." Something Leon and Yuffie had said earlier suddenly came back to her. "And I bet a good number of the people who come through here have something, just... 'put away'."

Sora paused, thinking about that. "Yeah, I guess... still, most people don't carry _guns_. They're kind of... different, y'know?"

Rachel frowned. "Different how?"

"Well..." Sora paused for a moment to think about it. "The thing is, basically — most people prefer a weapon that's more... like, disciplined? Like... you remember how you reacted when I barged in on you."

Rachel winced. "Yeah, I remember that all right." _What would Jules say if she knew I pulled a gun on Sora, of all people..._ "I'm not _that_ on edge now... I mean, I'm still _pretty_ on edge, if I'm honest... but still, less than before."

"Yeah, that's kinda my point, though," Sora said. "A weapon like that, you can do some real damage, without needing much training..."

"Given that I don't have much training," Rachel pointed out, "isn't that a _good_ thing?"

"Sure, I suppose, but... it's not the kind of thing most people want on display, y'know?" Sora glanced over at Leon and Aerith, who seemed to be finishing up their shopping. "Well, I guess it's kind of a matter of opinion, isn't it?"

Rachel shrugged. "Maybe... Hello, Aerith."

"Hey," Aerith said. "Hold this for me." And with that, she shoved an armlet into Rachel's hands, causing blue lines to flow from her palms.

"Uh..." Rachel stared at Aerith, befuddled.

"It looks like accessories cause the blue lines, too," Aerith said. "I was wondering if that was the case... Then that implies..."

"Oh, we already figured that out," Sora said.

Aerith blinked. "You did? Oh."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "So no accessories for me. Not unless we go to a world where those lines are a normal look."

The three of them who were getting accessories rang up their purchase and they headed outside again.

"See anything, Yuffie?" Aerith asked.

"Not a single thing," Yuffie responded. "It's so weird..."

...

"You wanna explain why we're letting her get fully armed and equipped before we make our move?"

"Do you think a scared girl who just lost her home will be that much more dangerous with a few potions and accessories on hand?"

"Really? Do you not remember the _last_ scared kid who washed up here down one world and up one Keyblade?"

"... A Keyblade?"

"What, you can't tell? That's the entire reason Sora's interested in her!"

"... How is it that _you_ can tell?"

"Hey, if you can tell for yourself, I don't think you need _me_ to explain it."

"Hmph."

* * *

"This is not quite the kind of stuff I think of when I hear the word 'armor'," Rachel said to nobody in particular, looking through the selection of belts, bangles, chokers, chains, trinkets, anklets, bandanas, fans, armlets, ribbons, and rosettes. _I really should have seen this coming, though. Ribbons in particular — classifying them as a type of armor is totally Final Fantasy._ "Half of this stuff was sold at the accessories shop, too... What even is the difference between 'armor' and 'accessories' to people out here?"

"Armor has defensive magic woven directly into the material, while accessories are enchanted to draw on the wearer's power, and are meant for those who wish to tap into their full potential," Leon said. "... If there's no magic to make the distinction, how did they define it in your world?"

"Back home, armor is defined as..." She paused for a moment to figure out how to define a concept she didn't usually think about in explicit words. "... basically, any solid matter you put between yourself and an attack so that it inflicts less harm on you. It might deflect it, blunt it, take the damage itself..." She waved her hand vaguely. "I bet Jules would have a more precise definition. But I know that 'armor' and 'accessories' aren't treated as... practically interchangeable, back home."

"Oh, armor like this?" Yuffie said, popping out of somewhere and holding out what looked like a mail shirt.

"Gah!" Rachel leapt back and flailed her arms wildly for a moment before grabbing onto a display rack and stabilizing herself. "Don't _do_ that, Yuffie..." she said, though she breathed a sigh of relief that she had managed to avoid falling down this time. _I've really had well beyond enough of that..._

"Where did you even find something so... outdated?" Leon asked.

"It was in the back!" Yuffie declared cheerfully and non-specifically.

For reasons not entirely clear to Rachel, the armor shop also sold mundane clothing. Though on reflection, she realized it was at least not _as_ strange for the armor shop to have this function as it would have been for the accessories or potions shops.

The organizational method of the shop wasn't entirely clear, but there was a distinct increase in clothing-like-ness as one approached the rear wall, so it kinda made sense that that's where Yuffie would have found that, even though Rachel couldn't see which display she would have taken it from.

"Um, right," Rachel said. "Yeah, that's the kind of thing that got used as armor back home. Though like Leon said, it's kinda outdated... nowadays it's things like Kevlar vests." She paused in thought. "Though if it's not expected to block _bullets_, that might still be fine."

"Neat!" Yuffie said. "What's Kevlar?"

"It's... a synthetic fiber that's strong enough that it can be used to make bullet-resistant armor," Rachel said. "I don't know exactly what it's made of..." She pulled out her phone instinctively. "I'd look that up online, normally..." She shook her head. "But never mind that. If armor's magic is self-contained..."

Rachel picked up a random choker and held it in her hand, noting a distinct absence of blue lines. "This could work."

"And here's a ribbon!" Sora said, placing a ribbon on Rachel's head.

It should be noted that the ribbon was still in its packaging, so she wasn't actually _wearing_ it; rather, it just kinda sat there precariously.

Rachel froze instinctively for a moment, before finally realizing she could just grab the thing and hold it in her hand, which she did. "Um?"

"It's a ribbon!" Sora said. Before Rachel could say 'yes I figured that part out already', he quickly continued — "Basically, it'll help make you a little bit more fireproof. And iceproof. And thunderproof — uh, magic in general, really, but it also helps you hold firm against physical attacks, if you have to."

"It doesn't look like much..." Rachel said, looking over the light, seemingly-frail fabric. "I believe you, I do, but it doesn't _feel_ like it would really protect me..."

"Oh, trust me, unless you turn out to have some other weird quirk that breaks it, it'll really make a difference out there."

"Shouldn't I go with something... sturdier? More substantial?"

"No, something like that will hinder you too much. You need to be able to move quickly," Leon advised, "Not only that, but you'll need to physically draw your weapons in a pinch, if need be."

"Sooo... not this," Yuffie said, briefly glancing at the mail she was still carrying before tossing it over her shoulder. ("Please don't do that..." the shopkeeper called from the counter.)

"... Not that," Leon said. "The ribbon is a good choice for a beginner."

"How many should I get?"

"Just one, for now," Sora replied. "If you overdo it — particularly when you're just starting out — they can sorta... short out. Which doesn't go well."

Rachel glanced at Sora, head tilted in thought. "You learned that the hard way, didn't you?"

"Pff, _no way_," Sora said, "how would _that_ ever happen?" Before Rachel could point out that he was obviously lying, he quickly changed the subject. "So hey, now that you've got your one piece of starter armor, you should probably grab regular clothes."

Rachel blinked. "Uh — right," she said, completely thrown off balance. "That's also a thing I should be doing..."

"Well," Sora said, "I know your clothes are a little bit unusual —"

"Unusual?" Rachel interrupted, sounding incredulous. "It's _jeans_ and a _t-shirt_, it's literally the single most normal outfit..." She stopped suddenly. "Back home. Right."

"Yeah..." Sora said. "Um, so, if that's a pretty normal thing for you to wear, we can certainly get more clothes like it — like I was saying, it's a _little bit_ unusual, but not like, space-alien stuff. And if there's any other kind of clothes you want to get —" Sora gestured sweepingly at the entire store, "— this _is_ the place for it."

"Right..." Rachel said, quickly locating the dressing rooms. "I suppose I'll... grab some clothes and get back to you..."

* * *

Shortly thereafter, Rachel had acquired several new articles of clothing she found acceptable, and the three of them left the store.

"See anything suspicious while we were in there?" Leon asked Aerith.

"Nothing..." Aerith said, looking vexed. "And nothing on the radio, either. Whoever Sora saw, they're not doing anything to draw attention..."

"That's still so weird!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Presumably they're trying to stay hidden," Leon pointed out.

"Yeah, but in that case, how'd Sora see them in the first place?" Yuffie objected.

"I bet they just got careless when they thought I wasn't around to catch 'em," Sora said, a smug grin on his face. "So, anything else we need to do before we set out?"

There was a brief pause before Rachel realized Sora was talking to her. "Um... I am completely out of my depth, here. I got all the stuff you said I'd need to get..." _Riley, do you have any input? ... Anything to say at all? ... Any confirmation that you still exist and weren't just an elaborate hallucination? ... Great. Very cool. Whatever you're doing right now better be really damn important._ "I... wouldn't quite say I'm _ready_, but under the circumstances, I'm as close as I'm gonna get..."

"Fair enough," Sora said, smiling sympathetically. "You three have things handled here?"

Leon nodded. "We'll keep an eye out for anyone suspicious while you're gone."

"We're seeing them off, though, _right_?" Yuffie said, elbowing Leon.

"... Right," he said. "I meant we'll keep an eye out _after_ that."

"Nice recovery," Aerith said, the barest hint of a smirk on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Leon blatantly lied.

* * *

As the three of them continued bantering, the five of them headed off towards the landing pad, where Sora had parked his ship earlier, via the First District.

"So," Sora said to Rachel while the Committee was occupied. "Knife and gun, huh?"

"Mm-hmm," Rachel responded. "... Can't help but feel like we _just_ went over this."

"Yeah, well, I got distracted last time," Sora remarked, offhand.

"Ah, of course," Rachel snarkily replied.

"Exactly. So, anyway..." He glanced at the Committee again. _They're not actively listening, but they still might overhear..._ "Did you consider... any other weapons?"

"Um..." Rachel seemed completely lost at this question. "Like I said, I don't have much in the way of training with weapons. I don't think I could've used another one."

"Huh." Sora paused. "Not even something... directly from the heart?" He asked innocently, putting his hands behind his head.

"You too?" Rachel responded, sounding incredulous. "I don't even know what that means. What kind of a weapon has anything to do with my heart... it's a weapon. It's a thing that inflicts damage on my enemies. There's no heart connection to be had."

Sora stopped, staring, his hands dropping to his sides. _She's... not getting it at all. How... If she knows anything about Keyblades, she has to know what I'm talking about... But..._ He tried once again to remember anything that had happened between placing the Kingdom Key in her hand and waking up in Mickey's Gummi Ship, but the memories still just wouldn't come. _... if she __**doesn't**_ _know... Oh, that's probably bad..._

Rachel frowned. "You okay, Sora?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Well, never mind this, let's keep going," he said hastily and continued onward.

"Right..." Rachel figured it was probably not that important and followed after Sora.

* * *

Rachel and her familiar, yet unfamiliar posse moved swiftly through the rest of Traverse Town, rain puddles splashing around their feet, coming to the same place where Rachel herself had lost her mind for a short while, stepping into the open, rectangular space, raised cobblestone paths around them, and stairs leading up there along one side.

They were just about to leave for the First District, when suddenly —

_"... cannot wait any longer..."_

Rachel froze. "... Did any of y'all hear that?"

The others stopped.

"I didn't hear anything," Leon said, looking around.

Rachel frowned very loudly, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. _It was definitely... __**outside**__, I guess I'll call it. Maybe in an up-ish direction...?_ She strained her ears, but couldn't hear it again.

She _did_, however, hear a distinctive _whoosh_ noise.

She whirled around, her head almost moving fast enough to crick her neck, looking where she thought the noise was coming from, but only just managed to spot a few dissipating wisps of dark smoke.

_Oh... hell..._

Rachel found herself staggering a little, taking a few unintended steps backwards, as her head craned up at the rooftop where the smoke just was, not a moment ago.

_I... I can't handle this. This is not a thing I can handle. Why do we even __**have**_ — _Xehanorts or Organization people or __**whoever**_ _stalking us anyway?!_

Meanwhile, as Rachel's mind was reeling, the others in her posse felt themselves afflicted with a sudden cold chill, as if an invisible black wind had blown through their flesh. The group turned around, just in time to see a sight that had become all too familiar over many months.

"Look alive, Rachel, we've got Heartless," Leon said, retrieving his gunblade.

"Heartless...?" Rachel slowly turned back toward the group, as if she was afraid of what she'd see, and sure enough, Shadows were rising from the ground and Soldiers were poofing into existence all around everyone. _There's... so many of them... I..._ She felt her hands clench into fists, almost involuntarily. _I can't... I..._

_You have to __**focus**__, Rachel._

Confusion cut through Rachel's panic like a knife. _Riley?! Where __**were**_ _you?_

_Busy. I'll explain later — I don't know if you noticed, but we're in the middle of a fight right now._

_Gee, no kidding?! What do I __**do**__?_

_It would probably help if we were holding a weapon._

Spurred into action by Riley's words, Rachel drew her tanto, just in time to parry a swipe from a Soldier and counter with a stab to its gut. Or the Heartless equivalent thereof.

"You all right, Rach?" Sora asked, taking down a few Shadows with one swipe of the Kingdom Key.

"I — just lost focus for a second." She took a moment to slice a Soldier in two, then tried taking a step closer to the rest of the group, only to realize there was a good half-dozen Heartless between her and them.

"This is _way_ more Heartless than we normally fight around here," Yuffie exclaimed. "What's going on!?"

_A tanto... borrowed from Yuffie. That makes sense, but I had a different weapon in mind. __Or my part of — oh, whatever._

_Right, of course._ Having cleared a little more space, Rachel sheathed the tanto and drew her pistol, quickly blasting a few Heartless that tried to close the gap. Unlike Sora, his movement overflowing with grace, Rachel moved cautiously, deliberately, and much more defensively. She wasn't about to risk getting hurt.

"... Guys, I think they might be trying to separate Rachel from us," Aerith said, a distinctly worried tone to her voice.

"What?!" Yuffie exclaimed. "How?"

"I don't know, but definitely don't let them do it!" Aerith said, knocking down a Soldier with her guard stick. "_Hastera!_"

Adrenaline and/or magic pounded in Rachel's ears, and the world seemed to slow down just a little bit. As Rachel fired off a few more shots, now aimed more precisely thanks to the strange effect, a detached part of her idly wondered whether this was the normal effect of the spell or if she was partially resisting it.

_Good shooting, Rachel. I guess Jules was right to drag us to the shooting range so much... Still, the gun isn't what I had in mind either._

She shot one more Soldier and the aetheroconverter vibrated slightly to signal that it had run dry. She holstered the pistol and drew the tanto again. _I don't have any more holsters, Riley. It's the pistol and the tanto, and that's it._

"Magnet!" Sora cried, and a vortex of energy appeared in the air, dragging Heartless into it en masse. "Now, Thunder!" he added, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the swirling crowd, arcing between them and destroying several.

"There's still more of them!" Yuffie shouted.

"Are we being deliberately swarmed?" Leon said.

_... Wait, you don't know?! _Riley cried out in Rachel's mind, not believing what Rachel was thinking to them. _Hold out an empty hand, there's a Keyblade in here!_

_What!?_ In disbelief, Rachel held out her left hand, and suddenly, Rachel felt a heavy weight appear as if from nowhere, as a second Kingdom Key materialized in her grasp. _"What the hell?!"_ Rachel cried out, her head snapping rigidly to the item manifested in her hand, her veins flaring blue around the grip, and beyond. "How long has _that_ been there?!"

_Holy crap, she really didn't know_, Sora thought.

"A Keyblade?" Aerith exclaimed. "Where — wait, _that's_ your mysterious aether source, isn't it!"

"Wh— _that's_ what you're focusing on?!" Rachel exclaimed, incredulously. "We're—" But she forgot whatever she was about to say when a massive wall of Shadows rose up around her, trapping her in a vortex of darkness.

"... Oh, _fuck._"

Rachel looked at the swirling vortex of darkness surrounding her, and without many clear options, she decided there was only one thing that she could immediately think of. Rachel tried to lift the Keyblade, making the veins in her arm glow bright in the process, but, as one might expect for a massive hunk of some unidentified metal, it was simply too heavy to move.

_Well, this is much less useful than I was expecting it to be._

_Yes, Riley, I noticed! How do I unsummon this thing..._ After a moment she gave up and just let it sit on the ground. _I don't think I'm gonna make a dent in that with this tanto_, she thought, drawing it, _but do I have a better option?_

"Now might be a good time to surrender."

Rachel whirled around to face this voice. _Demyx?! Uh-oh..._ "Surrender? What are you _talking_ about?" _Whatever it is, it __**can't**_ _be good..._

"Y'know, surrender! Give yourself up, throw yourself on the tender mercies of Organization XIII."

"I know what the word _means_," Rachel said, unable to resist an eyeroll. "What do you have to do with any of _this_, and why do you even _want_ me to surrender to you?"

"Well, I'm the one controlling all these Heartless," Demyx said matter-of-factly, gesturing all around. "As for why we want to capture you... I don't actually know that, it's classified. But I'd bet several munny that it has to do with that Keyblade."

Rachel looked at the surprisingly heavy weapon lying on the ground at her feet. "Uh-huh," she said, crouching down to put her hands on it as though she could definitely pick it up any moment but was just choosing not to right now. "I don't really know what these things are good for. You wanna elaborate?"

Demyx shrugged. "They're kinda generically useful. They do a lot of things — harvest hearts, open any lock, turn into gliders, enhance your magic... In short, I can't actually narrow it down that much."

"Enhance magic, huh..." Suddenly she stood up, hoisting the Keyblade with both hands and holding it at her side, one hand gripping the handguard from above like a carry-handle, the other grabbing hold of the shaft, almost like a minigun. "Like this?" _If this doesn't work..._ She took hold of her magic and _shoved_ it into the Keyblade, and as blue lines rapidly spread down her arms, a glowing black orb formed on the tip of the Keyblade.

"What the — ?!" Demyx had just enough time to summon his sitar before Rachel fired the orb, knocking Rachel off her feet and causing a massive blast and kicking up so much dust it was impossible to see.

Groaning, Rachel picked herself as the dust cleared, and she and Riley looked around. _D... did it work, then?_

_Well, we're still in the vortex of Shadows,_ Riley thought, _but Demyx is nowhere to be seen, so... inconclusive._ The Keyblade vanished in a poof of little magic sparks. _Finally figured out how to do that, though._

_That was... __**all**_ _of my magic, I'm pretty sure._

"So, this is how you're gonna be today, is it," Demyx said, stepping out of the wall of swarming Heartless like they were nothing but smoke.

"... had to try," Rachel muttered.

"Oh, I understand that," Demyx said. "Just as I'm sure you understand I'm going to have to subdue you by force, now. _Water._"

Several figures, composed entirely of water, rose from the ground and marched on Rachel.

"You, girlie, have managed to royally _tick me off_. I'd forgotten what that feels like."

The figures seized Rachel by the arms —

and, with no warning, collapsed into puddles.

Rachel blinked. "Wh... what just happened?"

Demyx stared for a second, unblinking, then grimaced. "_Of course._ Welp," he said, summoning his sitar again, "I guess we're doing this the _really_ hard way!" He yelled, strumming on his sitar, and sending a rather large wave of water towards Rachel, which smashed into her surprisingly hard, sweeping her right off her feet, and slamming her swiftly to the ground.

Rachel struggled to her feet, vision swimming.

_Look out, Rachel!_

She scrambled blindly to the side, narrowly avoiding Demyx's sitar as it smashed into the ground. He swung again and she just managed to bring up her arms to shield her face, which was at least better than taking the hit full-on. It didn't stop her from letting out a scream of pain, though.

"Hmm, what do we think," Demyx remarked to nobody Rachel could see through the vortex. "Two good hits, and she's down?"

Kneeling, winded, Rachel noted that her arms were bleeding. "What... right do you have, anyway? I... had _nothing_ to do with you!"

Demyx tilted his head. "'_Right'_? I don't think that's particularly relevant. I have my goals, and you're in the way of them. And don't think I haven't noticed that you only brought this question up _after_ I beat the stuffing out of you. _Which_ one of us tried taking the other out with a cheap shot, again?"

_It's not stopping him from talking, though,_ Riley noted. _Keep him rambling!_

"Well, uh..." Rachel cast about frantically for anything to say. "I only did that after you dragged me into this fight to begin with!"

"Hey, I never claimed _I_ had the moral high ground," he said, shrugging. "I'm a villain, remember? It's you hero-types who have... standards and ethics and all that stuff."

"Yeah, no kidding you have no standards," Rachel muttered.

_Uh, was that a good idea?_

Demyx frowned for a moment. "That's right. No standards at all. No rule telling me it's bad for a man to kick a girl while she's down." Demyx hefted his sitar, ready to slam it down upon Rachel once again, prompting her to raise her bloody arms to her face, only for Demyx to deliver a cruel kick to Rachel's midsection, wringing out a harsh cry of pain. "Alright, say good ni—"

And then Sora came charging in from beyond the borders of the vortex, screaming his lungs out, stopping the falling sitar with his Keyblade, blocking the attack. He released another yell soon after, swinging the Keyblade towards Demyx, repelling his assault.

Demyx staggered back a step, reeling from the unexpected impact. "What?!"

"You..." Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at Demyx, fixing a glare. "I don't know why you're hurting my friend, but it _ends here._"

"Oh, that is _enough_!" Demyx cried. "I came here to do _one job_, and by everything the light touches I am gonna _do that job_! _Dance, water, dance!_"

Water clones erupted from the ground, some charging at Sora and Rachel and some just dancing around.

Sora dashed at the clones to take them out before they hurt Rachel, and she looked down at her battered body. _I...I'm bleeding..._ _I am bleeding... I am actually bleeding so much, right now..._

_Rachel. We need to focus and not go into shock. We have potions. Use one._

_... Yes. Potion._ Rachel moved her hand, slowly and methodically, toward her backpack —

_We don't have time for this._ Rachel suddenly felt something shift — like someone kicking down a door in her brain — and her hand moved on its own, swiftly withdrawing a potion and pouring it down her throat.

Her eyes widened as the potion's magic kicked in and the world came back into focus. _Riley, did you just —_

_Yes. We will discuss it when we're not fighting for our life._

_Right!_ Carefully, Rachel pushed herself up to a slightly more stable kneeling position, her wounds still not completely healed.

Sora and Demyx were going at each other like — well, like _Kingdom Hearts_ characters. Sora was charging at Demyx with his Keyblade, letting off magical explosions, and generally flipping around, while Demyx was summoning water pillars left and right as well as the occasional water clone.

Rachel gazed at the spectacle surrounding her, seemingly reminiscent of a Kingdom Hearts gameplay video, presented in 360 degrees. Rachel could see how Sora's attacks seemingly formed into pure light, that shined and rippled through the liquified crystal that Demyx had cast into the air. Rachel couldn't help but feel like she was in the middle of a live show at a certain theme park. _This is... surreal._

Sora's movements by themselves were like a protective dance, as he dispatched watery forms with both absolute ease, and determined fervor.

_It... really seems like Sora has this one handled_, Rachel thought.

Demyx took to sliding around the area, casting jets of water around for him to ride on, whipping around Rachel, as if he was saving her for later.

_That doesn't mean we can relax and do nothing, though,_ Riley pointed out.

Sora's Keyblade slashed through even more of Demyx's attacks, sending droplets cascading everywhere. If any of them reached his face or his hair, it absolutely didn't faze him.

_I know. But I don't see any opening... if I could get Haste again, maybe... Maybe I could focus..._

_That's not a problem. The way the magic flowed when Aerith cast it... it was like an open book._

Rachel boggled slightly. _What the heck?! I can't do that! How did __**you**_ _figure that out?_

_Later. Right now, if we don't act, Demyx is gonna get us. It's do or die, Rachel!_

_... Okay, but we are gonna have a __**long**_ _talk when we actually have some time._

Still shaking, but a lot more stable from the potion's healing magic, Rachel rose to her feet. Keeping a watchful eye on Demyx, she took a few cautious steps backward, towards the edge of the vortex, trying to get a handle on things from a safer distance.

_Okay, I can't just do nothing, can I?_ Rachel mused to herself, noting how she really was out of her depth, here. _I wonder what Jules would do..._

Just then, Demyx evaded another attack from Sora, flying away on a jet of water, and when he touched down, he noticed that Rachel had gotten back up.

_Aw, crap!_

"Finally decided to join us, huh?" Demyx quickly strummed his sitar, and tried to drop a torrent on Rachel's position, but she quickly dodged out of the way, and ran behind Sora, as he quickly took a defensive stance in front of her.

_...What __**would**_ _Jules do...? _Rachel thought to herself. _Riley, what was that you were saying about Haste earlier?_

_Just say when._

_...Got it._

"You're not getting to her, without going through me!" Sora declared.

Demyx smirked, and began to play on his sitar, conjuring jets of water that managed to pull Sora towards him, leading to him getting smacked with the sitar, and being sent flying.

_Get ready... Wait for it..._

Sora quickly pulled off some kind of mid-air recovery, righting himself and touching down on his feet, before quickly throwing his Keyblade at Demyx's head, promptly drawing his attention off of Rachel. Demyx quickly cast an array of water pillars to knock Sora around some more...

_Haste, NOW!_

Rachel's perception of the world began to slow down, and her veins began to glow. Demyx's hands slowed on the strings of his sitar. Rachel moved her hand towards her gun, quickly drew it, and charged up the magazine until it was clearly fully loaded.

Demyx was busy dealing with the Keyblade wielder when he heard a mechanical click-clack noise behind him. He turned around just after Rachel had already cocked her trusty 1911. He was just about to deal with this ridiculous girl and her pitiful excuse for a weapon, when Rachel, taking advantage of her hastened state, moved a few critical steps closer, took aim with the 1911, and opened fire.

Since a large amount of Demyx's center mass was obscured by the sitar, Rachel took advantage of her own hastened state to take aim directly at Demyx's head. She squeezed the trigger, and sent a bullet straight towards, and by extension, straight into Demyx's head, making him drop his sitar, and collapse backwards to the ground, his head still bleeding from the shot.

Sora stared at Demyx as his body slowly disintegrated into wisps of darkness. "Whoa... no way..." he muttered, sounding more impressed than anything.

As the wall of Shadows collapsed and the individual Heartless reasserted themselves (mostly by running away), Rachel stared at the vanishing Nobody, stunned — and then time abruptly shifted back into normal gear and she felt all her muscles seize up for just a moment, causing her to drop to her knees. "Ow. Ow ow ow..."

"Oh, geez..." Sora rushed over to Rachel, kneeling by her side. "You okay, Rach? _Heal._"

"Well... I'm not dead," she groaned. "So I've got that going for me." She glanced down at her bruised and battered body and noticed that she didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere anymore. "I think... I might be resistant to healing magic, or something..."

Rachel heard footsteps as the rest of the Committee ran over.

"Sora, Rachel, what the heck _happened_?" Yuffie called out.

Rachel briefly considered trying to struggle back to her feet, but soon realized that that was definitely not happening right now. "Some creepy black-cloak-wearing guy happened... called himself Demyx, but I think he might be dead now..."

"Yeah, about _that_," Sora said. "I'm not denying the results you got, but why didn't you use the Keyblade?"

"The... big-ass chunk of metal that appeared in my hand suddenly?" Rachel mumbled. "It's a big-ass chunk of metal. It weighs like a million tons. Not much I can do with that with my frail little arms."

"Too heavy?" Sora boggled for a moment, then summoned his Kingdom Key. "This doesn't feel heavy at all..."

On a sudden hunch, Rachel reached out and grasped Sora's Kingdom Key. Immediately it dropped to the ground.

They both stared at it for several seconds.

"That's... not how that works," Leon said. "... Not how that's _supposed_ to work, I guess."

"So that's why you didn't use it," Sora said. "It was just... too heavy?"

"Pretty much," Rachel said. "I did get the idea of summoning the thing over the guy's head and letting gravity do the work, but I never did find an opening for that move, so..." She shrugged.

"This is all very scientifically interesting," Aerith said, "but we _really_ need to get you to the ship. We don't know whether he had backup."

Rachel very briefly considered the prospect of fighting another Organization member and shuddered. "I barely made it through _one_ fight," she muttered, her body still feeling very sore, to put it mildly. "Yes, we should leave immediately."

As Sora helped Rachel to her feet, Leon had a concerned look on his face. "It's strange... the Keyblade chose you, despite the fact that it doesn't even work properly for you."

"Is that how it works, then?" Rachel asked, feigning skepticism. "The big chunk of metal I can't barely lift chose to be my friend? Not that I'll turn down a friend under the circumstances, but... I'll get more use bench-pressing this thing than trying to wield it as a weapon."

"There's also the fact that it's probably your mysterious aether source," Aerith said.

"Oh yeah," Rachel said, "you mentioned that... what's that about?"

"Well, we explained about how you need aether to live, right?" Aerith asked.

"Uh-huh," Rachel nodded. "You also mentioned that it's not staying inside my body like it should, so you had to invent a whole new magic spell to make it stick, and you had time to do that because it kept refilling out of nowhere." She looked down toward her hand, at where the Kingdom Key would be if she was holding it. "And you think 'nowhere' is in fact my new massive metal friend...?"

"The Keyblade _is_ packed with an incredible amount of aether," Leon said. "Sora once looked at it with Libra and... nearly blinded himself..." He trailed off suddenly. "I suppose that answers why you were chosen, though, if... the Keyblade... was trying to keep you alive for some reason."

"But..." Yuffie frowned. "Rachel's world had... billions of people in it. Why... pick just one?" She asked, looking towards Rachel with a telling look. Surprisingly, Yuffie had enough tact to avoid saying it outright, but Rachel understood what Yuffie was really asking — why pick _her,_ out of everyone else?

An awkward silence descended upon the group. Rachel, in particular, fell dead silent as she thought about what Yuffie had just said harder than what could be considered even remotely healthy. The silence lingered for a moment, before Sora spoke up. "Um, in any case, that's the Keyblade, now we gotta get going."

Leon nodded. "Right. Let's get going." He took a look at Rachel, barely staying on her feet even with Sora's help, and frowned. "Hmm. Well, Sora and I will go ahead and make sure the ship is secure. Yuffie, Aerith, you can help Rachel, right?"

"Uhh—" Sora uhhed very briefly before Yuffie interrupted.

"Yeah, we got this!" Yuffie declared, picking Rachel up again, just as easily as she had last time, again, much to her surprise. "Go on ahead, we'll bring her there!"

"Don't move too fast, Yuffie," Aerith said, picking up Rachel's backpack and, with caution, her pistol from where she had dropped them after the battle. "Rachel's clearly not in great shape right now."

"Yeah, yeah," Yuffie said. "I know how to be careful, y'know."

Rachel heard her backpack being unzipped, as Aerith's hands moved the gun towards the open pack. "Hold up, Aerith," Rachel mumbled, unclipping the pistol's holster from her belt. "Put the gun in here first. Don't want it going off by accident..."

"Is that likely?" Aerith wondered aloud, moving the gun away from the pack.

"Don't know. Don't want to find out today. Holster the gun, please."

"Right, right," Aerith said, taking the holster and placing the gun securely inside it, sounding for all the world like she had never considered any other course of action.

"Take the magazine out, too! ... Probably should have led with that, actually."

* * *

"Why are you going so _fast_, Leon?!" Sora complained as they reached the Gummi Ship. "We're just gonna have to wait for the others to catch up anyway —"

"What did you _do_, Sora?" Leon interrupted.

"Wh..." Sora boggled. "Um... I think you're gonna have to narrow that down a bit," he said, not meeting Leon's eyes. _I __**knew**_ _I heard him pause weirdly when he talked about the Keyblade choosing Rachel! How am I supposed to explain any of this?_

"Hm. You didn't do anything drastic and risky, perhaps in a desperate attempt to save a life?" Leon asked.

"Uhh... I know that's totally the kind of thing I _would_ do, but I haven't done anything like that _recently_," Sora said. _Depending on how I define 'recently'..._

"... Right." Leon paused for a moment. "Hey, do you have any guesses as to why the Keyblade chose Rachel, specifically? You seemed kinda nervous about that subject, but now there's no one else around..."

"Well. Gosh. I will have to think about that for a moment, on account of it being such an abrupt change of subject," Sora said, with all the subtlety of a deafeningly awkward silence, such as the one that quickly descended upon both of them.

"... The thing I was wondering is," Leon spoke up eventually, "Yuffie said Rachel's world had _billions_ of people in it. Not to knock on Rachel or anything, but... out of billions of people, why save only her?"

Sora closed his eyes in an ostentatious show of looking thoughtful. "... When I got to Rachel's world... I didn't see anyone left alive _except_ Rachel. I don't know how the Keyblade makes choices like that, but... by the time it came up, I don't think it had billions of people to choose from."

"Huh." Leon thought about that for a moment. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

"What, really?" Sora responded, unsure whether to be confused or relieved.

"Yeah," Leon replied. "It seems a lot more obvious of a decision, if Rachel was the only one left alive..." Leon suddenly had a thought come to him. "Sora... Are you absolutely sure that Rachel was the only one left alive?"

"Well, I didn't see anyone else..."

"...So, a world with billions of people in it, and you only saw Rachel?"

"I didn't explore the _whole_ world," Sora said, defensively. "It's _really_ big, y'know. But... the part I did explore... there could've been a good few thousand people there, and... yeah, I only saw Rachel." He looked down.

"But... that implies..." Leon suddenly felt a very, very cold chill. He suddenly stood as straight as a metal rod, and his eyes stopped focusing on the world around him.

"Yeah," Sora said. "Whoever did this... not just to Rachel's world, but to all those other worlds..." He clenched his fist. "They have a lot to answer for."

Leon nodded. "You take 'em to task, Sora. You and Rachel, if she can."

It was at this point that Yuffie and Aerith caught up, Yuffie still carrying Rachel. She waved to Sora, then held a finger to her lips in a "shh" gesture. Sora wondered why, for just a brief moment, before seeing Rachel, passed out in Yuffie's arms.

"She's out cold, huh...?" he said in a low voice, once Yuffie was close enough to hear.

"Mm-hmm," she responded. "She's _really_ not used to fighting, isn't she..."

"She really isn't," Sora agreed. "Her world must have been pretty peaceful, huh..."

"It seems so, yeah," Yuffie said. "You want me to strap her in?" she said, gesturing toward the Gummi Ship.

"_I'll_ strap her in, I think," Aerith interrupted before Sora could say anything.

Yuffie glared at Aerith for a second, then sighed, looking annoyed. "Yeah, fair." She handed Rachel over to Aerith and turned back to Sora. "Y'all need to get _moving_, though."

"Right." Sora nodded. He turned to enter the Gummi Ship, but Leon stopped him.

"... Keep an eye on her, Sora," he said. "Empowered and disoriented is... well, it worked out fine for you, but it's _typically_ not a good combination."

_Well. Leon definitely knows what's going on._ "I gotcha. I'll make sure she makes it through this." _Maybe I should've just come clean from the beginning, but..._

* * *

_**Meanwhile, several worlds away...**_

"... in one blow, you say?"

"Yes. The weapon she used is not one that is typically capable of such devastating attacks, but it seems that her very essence is warping the fabric of reality." Saïx frowned. "I... suspect it is causing the world around her to act more like her home."

"Like her home... the Prime Cluster." Xemnas closed his eyes in thought. "The Prime Cluster has remained a closed space for millennia. Remaining closed is its entire purpose. Not even in my most desperate moments had I ever considered interfering with it. Yet someone has, and as a result, Demyx has been destroyed again... That said, our priorities remain the same. Keep watch over this girl. She is not a true danger to us... yet."

"Not a true danger, Superior...?"

"As of now, she most likely has little interest in us — having defeated Demyx, I believe she will consider the matter settled. At this point, she seeks the one who destroyed her world. Let us ensure that they find each other."

* * *

_Where __**were**_ _you?!_

Drifting, conscious yet unconscious, Riley reflected on Rachel's question.

_"Who... and/or what the hell are you?" Riley gasped. This sort of physical violence shouldn't even be possible in headspace! Damn Kingdom Hearts nonsense, making everything a huge pain..._

_He grinned. "What, don't you recognize me?"_

_"Don't screw with me," they retorted, "I know damn well you're not Sora!"_

_He rolled his eyes. "Not that. Look beyond my borrowed external appearance for a second." He held his arms wide. "You sure you don't see anything familiar?"_

_"... Ah. Crap."_

_"There it is. That's the reaction I've been looking for."_

They sighed. "That's not gonna go over well with her at all..."

* * *

**Rachel attained the power of destruction. Remembered Ruin and learned Ruinra.**

* * *

_**In this chapter's edition of "Things that go at the bottom of the page"...**_

Hey, we finally finished part 1... Which definitely makes this the _perfect_ time to mention that we're gonna take a break of a month or several now, to plot out the remaining arcs and rebuild our buffer. There may be a non-linear interlude posted during that time. Or any other time, really, half the point of those interludes is that I can post them when I feel like it...

How long is the break gonna last? Um... Not sure. The current plan is to have the arc-by-arc outline of the entire story, the chapter-by-chapter outline of the next arc, and two or three actual chapters written, before we start posting again. This... may take a bit. I'll post daily updates... er, _kinda frequent_ updates in my Discord server (check my profile for the invite), and... well, as soon as I think of a reasonable alternative for people not interested in joining that, I'll edit it into this space.


End file.
